Reveries of the Solitary Walker Quotes

“I have never thought, for my part, that man's freedom consists in his being able to do whatever he wills, but that he should not, by any human power, be forced to do what is against his will.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Reveries of the Solitary Walker

“In all the ills that befall us, we are more concerned by the intention than the result. A tile that falls off a roof may injure us more seriously, but it will not wound us so deeply as a stone thrown deliberately by a malevolent hand. The blow may miss, but the intention always strikes home.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Reveries of the Solitary Walker

“Truth is an homage that the good man pays to his own dignity.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Reveries of the Solitary Walker

“It is hard to prevent oneself from believing what one so keenly desires, and who can doubt that the interest we have in admitting or denying the reality of the Judgement to come determines the faith of most men in accordance with their hopes and fears.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Reveries of the Solitary Walker

“Entirely taken up by the present, I could remember nothing; I had no distinct notion of myself as a person, nor had I the least idea of what had just happened to me. I did not know who I was, nor where I was; I felt neither pain, fear, nor anxiety. I watched my blood flowing as I might have watched a stream, without even thinking that the blood had anything to do with me. I felt throughout my whole being such a wonderful calm, that whenever I recall this feeling I can find nothing to compare with it in all the pleasures that stir our lives.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Reveries of the Solitary Walker

“إن براءتي وحدها تساندني في المصائب , وكم ذا تشتد أيضاً تعاستي , إذا أنتزعت مني هذا المعين القوي الأوحد لأستبدل به سوء الخلق”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Reveries of the Solitary Walker

“I don't know how this lively and dumb scene would have ended , or how long I might have remained immoveable in this ridiculous and delightful situation , had we not been interrupted.”
― Jean Jacques Rousseau, Yalnız Gezerin Hayalleri

“I am a hundred times happier in my solitude than I could be if I lived among them.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Reveries of the Solitary Walker

“if you study in order to instruct, and herbalize only to become author or professor, all its attractive charms vanish, and plants, being no longer considered but as instruments of our passions, no more real pleasure can result from the study of them. Our end, then, is not to gain knowledge, but to make others sensible of our acquirements;”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Reveries of the Solitary Walker

“La jeunesse est le temps d'étudier la sagesse; la vieillesse est le temps de la pratiquer.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, rêveries du promeneur solitaire, Les

“so true it is that pleasure does not depend on extravagance, and that joy is as readily purchased by pence as pounds.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Reveries of the Solitary Walker

“Whoever is endowed with a power superior to mankind, should also be above the weakness of humanity, without which, that excess of strength would, in effect, only sink him below the most feeble, or what he would actually have been, had he remained their equal.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Reveries of the Solitary Walker

“Sometimes my reveries end in meditation, but more often my meditations end in reverie and during these wanderings, my soul roams and takes flight through the universe on the wings of the imagination and ecstasies that exceed all other pleasures.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Reveries of the Solitary Walker

“إني أتحمل بسهولة البلايا التي أصبت بها , لا تلك التي أخشى وقوعها , لأن مخيلتي المنفرة تنظمها وتبحثها وتزيدها , وأرتقاب البلايا يحز في نفسي أكثر من وقوعها”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Reveries of the Solitary Walker

“Everything on earth is in a state of constant flux. Nothing keeps the same, fixed shape, and our affections, which are attached to external things, like them necessarily pass away and change. Always beyond or behind us, they remind us of the past which is no longer or anticipate the future which is often not to be: there is nothing solid in them for the heart to become attached to. Thus the pleasures that we enjoy in this world is almost always transitory; I suspect it is impossible to find any lasting happiness at all. Hardly is there a single moment even in our keenest pleasures when our heart can truly say to us: 'if only this moment would last for ever', and how is it possible to give the name happiness to a fleeting state which still leaves our heart anxious and empty, and which makes us regret something beforehand or long for something afterwards?

But if there is a state where the soul can find a position solid enough to allow it to remain there entirely and gather together its whole being, without needing to recall the past or encroach upon the future, where time is nothing to it, where the present lasts for ever, albeit imperceptibly and giving no sign of its passing, with no other feeling of deprivation or enjoyment, pleasure or pain, desire or fear than simply that of our existence, a feeling that completely fills our soul; as long as this state lasts, the person who is in it can call himself happy, not with an imperfect, poor, and relative happiness, such as one finds in the pleasures of life, but with a sufficient, perfect, and full happiness, which leaves in the soul no void needing to be filled.
The feeling of existence stripped of all other affections is in itself a precious feeling of contentment and peace which alone would be enough to make this existence prized and cherished by anyone who could banish all the sensual and earthly impressions which constantly distract us from it and upset the joy of it in this world.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Reveries of the Solitary Walker

“Happiness has no particular outward sign to discover itself by; we must be able to view the heart before we can be certain who are truly happy; but contentment is to be read in the eyes, the conversation, the accent, the manner, and seems to communicate itself to him that perceives it.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Reveries of the Solitary Walker

“Self-esteem is the strongest incentive to elevated souls: self-pride, fertile in illusions, often disguises itself, and is mistaken for the former; but when once the fraud is discovered, the danger ceases; for though it is difficult to eradicate it entirely, it may easily be kept in subjection.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Reveries of the Solitary Walker

“If I had remained free, obscure, and alone placed in the situation Nature designed me for, I should have done nothing but what was right, for my heart bears not the feeds of any mischievous passion. Had I been invisible and powerful as the Almighty, I should have been benevolent and good like him: it is power and freedom that make good men, weakness and slavery never made any but wicked ones.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Reveries of the Solitary Walker

“Quand le soir approchait je descendais des cimes de l'île et j'allais volontiers m'asseoir au bord du lac, sur la grève, dans quelque asile caché; là le bruit des vagues et l'agitation de l'eau fixant mes sens et chassant de mon âme toute autre agitation la plongeaient dans une rêverie délicieuse où la nuit me surprenait souvent sans que je m'en fusse aperçu. Le flux et le reflux de cette eau, son bruit continu mais renflé par intervalles frappant sans relâche mon oreille et mes yeux, suppléaient aux mouvements internes que la rêverie éteignait en moi et suffisaient pour me faire sentir avec plaisir mon existence, sans prendre la peine de penser.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Les Rêveries du promeneur solitaire

“So now I am alone in the world, with no brother, neighbour or friend, nor any company left me but my own.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Reveries of the Solitary Walker

“When all was right around me, when I was content with everything, and satisfied with the sphere I was to occupy, I filled it with my affections, while my expansive soul, extending itself to other objects, was perpetually attracted by a thousand different inclinations, and by amiable attachments, which continually employed my heart: in these situations I forgot myself in some measure, thinking principally on what was foreign to me, and experiencing in the continual agitation of my feelings, all the vicissitude of earthly things. This exquisite sensibility lest me neither inward peace, nor outward repose; happy in appearance only, I had not a single sentiment that could have borne the proof of reflection, or with which I could truly have been content. Never was I perfectly satisfied either with others or myself; the tumult of the world made me giddy, solitude wearied me, I perpetually wished for a change of situation, and met with happiness in none.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Reveries of the Solitary Walker

“L'adversité sans doute est un grand maître, mais il fait payer cher ses leçons, et souvent le profit qu'on en retire ne vaut pas le prix qu'elles ont coûté.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, rêveries du promeneur solitaire, Les

“So much good my persecutors have done me by recklessly pouring out all the shafts of their hatred. They have deprived themselves of any power over me and henceforward I can laugh at them. It”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Reveries of the Solitary Walker

“I should have loved mankind in spite of themselves, and it was only by throwing off humanity that they could avoid my affection. At length, then, behold them strangers, unknown, as indifferent to me as they desired to be; but thus detached from mankind, and everything that relates to them, what am I? This remains to be sought.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Reveries of the Solitary Walker

“Alas, it is when one is beginning to leave behind one's mortal body that one is the most hindered by it!”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Reveries of the Solitary Walker

“Everything fluctuates on earth; nothing remains in a constant and lasting form, and those affections which are attached to external things necessarily change with their object. We are ever looking forward or backward, ruminating on what is past, and can return no more, or anticipating the future, which may never arrive; there is nothing solid to which the heart can attach, itself, neither have we here below any pleasures that are lasting. Permanent, happiness is, I fear, unknown, and scarcely is there an instant in our most lively enjoyments when the heart can truly say, May this moment last forever!!! How then can such a fugitive state be called happiness, which leaves an uneasy void in the heart, which ever prompts us to regret something that is past, or desire something for the future?”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Reveries of the Solitary Walker

“Benden çok daha fazla bilgiçlik taslayarak felsefe yapanları gördüm, fakat felsefeleri sanki kendilerine yabancıydı. Başkalarından daha bilge olmak istediklerinden, rastladıkları bir makineyi sırf merak için nasıl incelerlerse, dünyanın nasıl oluştuğunu anlamak için de aynı şekilde inceliyorlardı. İnsan doğasını, üzerinde bilgiççe konuşabilmek için inceliyorlardı, kendilerini tanımak için değil. Kendilerini aydınlatmak için değil, başkalarına öğretmek için çalışıyorlardı. Birçokları, iyi kabul edilsin de ne olursa olsun diye kitap yazma sevdasındaydılar; kitapları basılıp yayımlandığında, içindekilerle, onu başkalarına kabul ettirmek ve saldırıya uğradığında, içeriğinin çürütülmemesi için bu içeriğin doğru ya da yanlış olduğuna bakma zahmetine katlanmaksızın onu savunmak dışında hiçbir şekilde ilgilenmez olurlardı. Bana gelince, başkalarına öğretmek için değil, kendim bilmek için istedim öğrenmeyi her zaman. İnsanın başkalarını eğitmeye başlamadan önce, kendisi için öğrenmesi gerektiğine inandım.”
― Jean Jacques Rousseau, Bir Yalnız Gezerin Düşleri

“J'étais fait pour vivre, et je meurs sans avoir vécu.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Les rêveries du promeneur solitaire: Le testament posthume et inachevé de Jean-Jacques Rousseau (texte intégral) (Jean-Jacques Rousseau : contes philosophiques et autres écrits)

“Çevremizde her şey değişir. Kendimiz de değişiriz ve kimse bugün sevdiğini yarın da seveceğinden emin olamaz. Böylece şu dünyayla ilgili mutluluk tasarılarımız hep ham düşlemlerdir. Gönül rahatına kavuştuğumuz zaman, zevkine varalım; kendi kusurumuzla onu kaçırmayalım; ama onu bağlamayı düşünmek de bir çılgınlıktır. Mutlu olan az kişi gördüm, belki de görmedim; ama, gönlü hoşnut kimselere sık sık rastlarım. Mutluluğumun dış belirtileri yoktur; onu keşfetmek için mutlu insanın yüreğindekini görebilmeli.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Bir Yalnız Gezerin Düşleri

“Binbir yere bağlanmaya çalışırken hepsi elimden kaçıp da kendi kendime kalınca, dengemi yeniden buldum. Her yandan sıkıştırılmama karşın o dengeyi koruyorsam, artık hiçbir şeye bağlanmadığımdan, yalnızca kendime dayandığımdandır.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Bir Yalnız Gezerin Düşleri