We can never put ourselves in the shoes of children; we cannot fathom their thoughts, we lend them ours; and always following ourown reasoning, we stuff their heads with extravagance and error.
Jean-Jacques RousseauThe training of children is a profession, where we must know how to waste time in order to save it.
Jean-Jacques RousseauI have never believed that man's freedom consisted in doing what he wants, but rather in never doing what he does not want to do.
Jean-Jacques RousseauThe strength of the people is effective only if it is concentrated; it evaporates and is lost when it is dispersed, just as gunpowder scattered on the ground ignites only grain by grain.
Jean-Jacques RousseauThe most absolute authority is that which penetrates into a man's innermost being and concerns itself no less with his will than with his actions.
Jean-Jacques RousseauLeave those vain moralists, my friend, and return to the depth of your soul: that is where you will always rediscover the source of the sacred fire which so often inflamed us with love of the sublime virtues; that is where you will see the eternal image of true beauty, the contemplation of which inspires us with a holy enthusiasm.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau