Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Nature never deceives us; it is we who deceive ourselves.

Never did I think so much, never did I realize my own existence so much, never was I so much alive, so much myself, as in those journeys which I made alone and on foot.

Nature would have them children before they are men. If we try to invert this order, we shall produce a forced fruit, immature and flavourless, fruit which will be rotten before it is ripe; we shall have young doctors and old children.

Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.

The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.

I can only think while walking; as soon as I stop, I no longer think, and my mind only moves with my feet.

I am not made like any of those I have seen; I venture to believe that I am not made like any of those who are in existence.

To live is not merely to breathe; it is to act, to make use of our organs, senses, faculties — of all those parts of ourselves which give us the feeling of existence.

The person who has lived the most is not the one who has lived the longest, but the one with the richest experiences.

L'homme est né libre, et partout il est dans les fers.

Je sentis avant de penser: c'est le sort commun de l'humanité.