Jacques Rousseau Quotes

• There's a sense in which Marx does contribute to the fund of human knowledge, and we can no more dismiss him than we can [George] Hegel or [Jean-Jacques] Rousseau or [Baruch] Spinoza or [Charles] Darwin; you don't have to be a Darwinian to appreciate Darwin's views, and I don't have to be a Marxist to appreciate what is valid in a number of [Karl] Marx's writings-and Marx would call that a form of simple commodity production rather than capitalism.

  Murray Bookchin

  Writing, Simple, Numbers

  Source: reason.com

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• The artist must be a philosopher. Socrates the skilled sculptor, Jean-Jacques [Rousseau] the good musician, and the immortal Poussin, tracing on the canvas the sublime lessons of philosophy, are so many proofs that an artistic genius should have no other guide except the torch of reason.

  Jacques-Louis David

  Philosophy, Artist, Should Have

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• The theory of social contracts extends as far back as Plato. However, it was the great 18th century social philosophers John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau who brought the concept of a social contract between citizens and governments sharply into political thinking, paving the way for popular democracy and constitutional republicanism.

  Simon Mainwaring

  Thinking, Government, Political

  "What #OccupyWallStreet Must Ask of Corporations and Themselves" by Simon Mainwaring, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 12, 2011.

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• The only dance masters I could have were Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Walt Whitman and Nietzsche.

  Isadora Duncan

  Dance, Teacher, Dancing

  Isadora Duncan (1972). “My Life”, Liveright Publishing Corporation

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• Active people don't change the world profoundly; ideas do. Napoleon is less important in world history than Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

  Michel Houellebecq

  Ideas, People, Jean Jacques Rousseau

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• The star is the ultimate American verification of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Emile. His mere existence proves the perfectability of any man or woman. Oh wonderful pliability of human nature, in a society where anyone can become a celebrity! And where any celebrity . . . may become a star!

  Daniel J. Boorstin

  Stars, Men, Jean Jacques Rousseau

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