There exists one book, which, to my taste, furnishes the happiest treatise of natural education. What then is this marvelous book? Is it Aristotle? Is it Pliny, is it Buffon? No-it is Robinson Crusoe.

Usurpers 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.

I hate books; they only teach people to talk about what they don't understand.

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.

Our greatest evils flow from ourselves.

Whence do I get my rules of conduct? I find them in my heart. Whatever I feel to be good is good. Whatever I feel to be evil is evil. Conscience is the best of casuists.

Money is the seed of money, and the first guinea is sometimes more difficult to acquire than the second million.