Politics and the Arts Quotes

“The continual emotion that is felt in the theater excites us, enervates us, enfeebles us, and makes us less able to resist our passions. And the sterile interest taken in virtue serves only to satisfy our vanity without obliging us to practice it.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Politics and the Arts: Letter to M. D'Alembert on the Theatre

“Never in a monarchy can the opulence of an individual put him above the prince; but, in a republic, it can easily put him above the laws. Then the government no longer has force, and the rich are always the true sovereign.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Politics and the Arts: Letter to M. D'Alembert on the Theatre

“People think they come together in the spectacle, and it is here that they are isolated.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Politics and the Arts: Letter to M. D'Alembert on the Theatre