Quotes and Images From The Confessions of J. J. Rousseau   By: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

CONFESSIONS OF ROUSSEAU

By Jean Jacques Rousseau

A feeling heart the foundation of all my misfortunes

A religion preached by such missionaries must lead to paradise!

A subject not even fit to make a priest of

A man, on being questioned, is immediately on his guard

Adopted the jargon of books, than the knowledge they contained

All animals are distrustful of man, and with reason

All your evils proceed from yourselves!

An author must be independent of success

Ardor for learning became so far a madness

Aversion to singularity

Avoid putting our interests in competition with our duty

Being beat like a slave, I judged I had a right to all vices

Bilboquet

Catholic must content himself with the decisions of others

Caution is needless after the evil has happened

Cemented by reciprocal esteem

Considering this want of decency as an act of courage

Conversations were more serviceable than his prescriptions

Degree of sensuality had mingled with the smart and shame

Die without the aid of physicians

Difficult to think nobly when we think for a livelihood

Dine at the hour of supper; sup when I should have been asleep

Disgusted with the idle trifling of a convent

Dissembler, though, in fact, I was only courteous

Dying for love without an object

Endeavoring to hide my incapacity, I rarely fail to show it

Endeavoring to rise too high we are in danger of falling

Ever appearing to feel as little for others as herself

Finding in every disease symptoms similar to mine

First instance of violence and oppression is so deeply engraved

First time in my life, of saying, "I merit my own esteem"

Flattery, or rather condescension, is not always a vice

Force me to be happy in the manner they should point out

Foresight with me has always embittered enjoyment

Hastening on to death without having lived

Hat, only fit to be carried under his arm

Have the pleasure of seeing an ass ride on horseback

Have ever preferred suffering to owing

Her excessive admiration or dislike of everything

Hold fast to aught that I have, and yet covet nothing more

Hopes, in which self love was by no means a loser

How many wrongs are effaced by the embraces of a friend!

I never much regretted sleep

I strove to flatter my idleness

I never heard her speak ill of persons who were absent

I loved her too well to wish to possess her

I felt no dread but that of being detected

I was long a child, and am so yet in many particulars

I am charged with the care of myself only

I only wished to avoid giving offence

I did not fear punishment, but I dreaded shame

I had a numerous acquaintance, yet no more than two friends

Idea of my not being everything to her

Idleness is as much the pest of society as of solitude

If you have nothing to do, you must absolutely speak continually

In the course of their lives frequently unlike themselves

In company I suffer cruelly by inaction

In a nation of blind men, those with one eye are kings

Indolence, negligence and delay in little duties to be fulfilled

Indolence of company is burdensome because it is forced

Injustice of mankind which embitters both life and death

Insignificant trash that has obtained the name of education

Instead of being delighted with the journey only wished arrival

Is it possible to dissimulate with persons whom we love?

Jean Bapiste Rousseau

Knew how to complain, but not how to act

Law that the accuser should be confined at the same time

Left to nature the whole care of my own instruction

Less degree of repugnance in divulging what is really criminal

Letters illustrious in proportion as it was less a trade

Loaded with words and redundancies

Looking on each day as the last of my life

Love of the marvellous is natural to the human heart

Make men like himself, instead of taking them as they were

Making their knowledge the measure of possibilities

Making me sensible of every deficiency