Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The world is the book of women.

The only good political institutions are those which are capable of making a people happy.

The more the state is enlarged, the less liberty there is.

The true republic is a government of laws, not of men.

It is precisely because the force of things tends always to destroy equality that the force of legislation should always tend to maintain it.

The social compact establishes among the citizens an equality of such a kind, that they all bind themselves under the same conditions and should all enjoy the same rights.

The love of humanity is the only true virtue.

I know my heart, and I know men. 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. If I am not better, at least I am different.

My great maxim is that nature made me good, and if I am not, it is the fault of society.

The greatest and most important problems of life are all fundamentally problems of education.

The social contract establishes among the citizens an equality such that they all commit themselves under the same conditions and should all enjoy the same rights.

In the strict sense of the term, a true democracy has never existed, and never will exist.

The strongest is never strong enough to be always the master, unless he transforms strength into right, and obedience into duty.

Sovereignty, for the same reason as makes it inalienable, cannot be represented; it lies essentially in the general will, and cannot be represented without being destroyed.

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

People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.

Self-love makes more libertines than love.

The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying 'This is mine,' and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society.

The first who, having enclosed a piece of land, thought of saying 'This is mine' and found people simple enough to believe him was the true founder of civil society.

Our will is always for our own good, but we do not always see what that is.