Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseauwas a Francophone Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of the 18th century. His political philosophy influenced the Enlightenment in France and across Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the overall development of modern political and educational thought...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth28 June 1712
CityGeneva, Switzerland
CountryFrance
women tears addresses
The empire of woman is an empire of softness, of address, of complacency. Her commands are caresses, her menaces are tears.
education children teaching
We should not teach children the sciences; but give them a taste for them.
fortune bad-fortune knows
We do not know what really good or bad fortune is.
pride vanity nationalism
The English are predisposed to pride, the French to vanity.
men two excess
Temperance and labor are the two best physicians of man; labor sharpens the appetite, and temperance prevents from indulging to excess
fall teach fall-back
Teach by doing whenever you can, and only fall back upon words when doing it is out of the question.
men self helping
There is one further distinguishing characteristic of man which is very specific indeed and about which there can be no dispute, and that is the faculty of self-improvement - a faculty which, with the help of circumstance, progressively develops all our other faculties.
children philosophical order
The training of children is a profession, where we must know how to waste time in order to save it.
children philosophy men
Although modesty is natural to man, it is not natural to children. Modesty only begins with the knowledge of evil.
memories smell desire
Smell is the sense of memory and desire.
gratitude philosophical inspirational-christmas
Gratitude is a duty which ought to be paid, but which none have a right to expect.
abuse arise ennui
That which renders life burdensome to us generally arises from the abuse of it.
people curiosity taught
Teach your scholar to observe the phenomena of nature; you will soon rouse his curiosity, but if you would have it grow, do not be in too great a hurry to satisfy this curiosity. Put the problems before him and let him solve them himself. Let him know nothing because you have told him, but because he has learnt it for himself. Let him not be taught science, let him discover it. If ever you substitute authority for reason he will cease to reason; he will be a mere plaything of other people's thoughts.
men law too-much
In truth, laws are always useful to those with possessions and harmful to those who have nothing; from which it follows that the social state is advantageous to men only when all possess something and none has too much.