Whoever refuses to obey the general will will be forced to do so by the entire body; this means merely that he will be forced to be free.
Jean-Jacques RousseauI had been brought up in a church which decides everything and permits no doubts, so that having rejected one article of faith I was forced to reject the rest.
Jean-Jacques RousseauCivilization is a hopeless race to discover remedies for the evils it produces.
Jean-Jacques RousseauThe man who gets the most out of life is not the one who has lived it longest, but the one who has felt life most deeply.
Jean-Jacques RousseauHad I no other proof of the immortality of the soul than the oppression of the just and the triumph of the wicked in this world, this alone would prevent my having the least doubt of it. So shocking a discord amidst a general harmony of things would make me naturally look for a cause; I should say to myself we do not cease to exist with this life; everything reassumes its order after death.
Jean-Jacques RousseauUsurpers always bring about or select troublous times to get passed, under cover of the public terror, destructive laws, which the people would never adopt in cold blood. The moment chosen is one of the surest means of distinguishing the work of the legislator from that of the tyrant.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau