21 November, 2008
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was an Enlightenment philosopher and his ideas about popular sovereignty and social contracts influenced the French Revolution. He was friends with Diderot and contributed to the scientific project of the Encyclopaedists. His remains are in the Panthéon, in Paris.
"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains."
"To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man, to surrender the rights of humanity and even its duties. For he who renounces everything no indemnity is possible. Such a renunciation is incompatible with man's nature; to remove all liberty from his will is to remove all morality from his acts."
"What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?"
"Nothing is less in our power than the heart, and far from commanding we are forced to obey it"
"The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless."
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