Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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

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.

Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.

I felt before I thought: this is the common lot of humanity.

Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.

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

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.

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

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

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.