Every man has a right to risk his own life for the preservation of it.
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau
When something an affliction happens to you, you either let it defeat you, or you defeat it.
People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.
We should not teach children the sciences; but give them a taste for them.
Plant and your spouse plants with you; weed and you weed alone.
Free people, remember this maxim: we may acquire liberty, but it is never recovered if it is once lost.
Force does not constitute right... obedience is due only to legitimate powers.
It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.
Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains.
Our will is always for our own good, but we do not always see what that is.
The body politic, as well as the human body, begins to die as soon as it is born, and carries itself the causes of its destruction.
It is unnatural for a majority to rule, for a majority can seldom be organized and united for specific action, and a minority can.
The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.
You forget that the fruits belong to all and that the land belongs to no one.
Although modesty is natural to man, it is not natural to children. Modesty only begins with the knowledge of evil.
Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
Childhood is the sleep of reason.
We are born weak, we need strength; helpless, we need aid; foolish, we need reason. All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man's estate, is the gift of education.
