Quote

In all the ills that befall us, we are more concerned by the intention than the result. A tile that falls off a roof may injure us more seriously, but it will not wound us so deeply as a stone thrown deliberately by a malevolent hand. The blow may miss, but the intention always strikes home.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Age: 66 †
Born: 1712
Born: June 28
Died: 1778
Died: July 2
Autobiographer
Botanist
Choreographer
Composer
Correspondent
Encyclopédistes
Essayist
Literary
Music Critic
Music Theorist
Musicologist
Genève
J. J. Rousseau
Rousseau
Jean Jaques Rousseau
Jean Jeacques Rousseau
John James Rousseau
Johann Jacob Rousseau
Juan Jacobo Rousseau
Jan Jakub Rouseau
Gian Giacomo Rousseau
Lu-so
G. G. Rousseau
Zhan Zhak Russo
Citizen of Geneva
Citoyen de Genève
Jean Jacques
Always
Missing
Strikes
Ills
Concerned
Seriously
Deliberately
Results
Deeply
Wound
Tile
Hand
Miss
Roof
Malevolent
Fall
Intention
Falls
Tiles
Hands
Blow
Stone
Befall
Home
Stones
Thrown
May
Result
Wounds
Injure

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Once you teach people to say what they do not understand, it is easy enough to get them to say anything you like.
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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.
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Conscience is the voice of the soul, the passions are the voice of the body. It is strange that these voices often contradict each other?
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The more humanity owes him, the more society denies him. Every door is shut against him, even when he has a right to its being opened: and if he ever obtains justice, it is with much greater difficulty than others obtain favors.
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We lose all that time which we might employ better.
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For it is in our nature to endure patiently the decrees of fate, but not the ill-will of others.
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Whatever may be our natural talents, the art of writing is not acquired all at once.
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The man is best served who has no occasion to put the hands of others at the end of his own arms.
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Social man lives constantly outside himself.
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[When anything happens, we interpret it as good or bad, but...] We do not know what is really good or bad fortune. [Only the future can decide. For example, what appears to be bad today may in fact lead us to a greater good tomorrow and by the very act of thinking and planning in that positive way, we can help make that good future come true.]
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...in respect of riches, no citizen shall ever be wealthy enough to buy another, and none poor enough to be forced to sell himself.
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The infant, on opening his eyes, ought to see his country, and to the hour of his death never lose sight of it.
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The truths of the Scriptures are so marked and inimitable, that the inventor would be more of a miraculous character than the hero.
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Leave 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.
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Money is the seed of money, and the first guinea is sometimes more difficult to acquire than the second million.
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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.
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Your first duty is to be humane. Love childhood. Look with friendly eyes on its games, its pleasures, its amiable dispositions. Which of you does not sometimes look back regretfully on the age when laughter was ever on the lips and the heart free of care? Why steal from the little innocents the enjoyment of a time that passes all too quickly?
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If Socrates died like a philosopher, Jesus Christ died like a God.
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There is a period of life when we go back as we advance. [Fr., Il est un terme de la vie au-dela duquel en retrograde en avancant.]
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Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau