Patience patience quotes is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
An intelligent being, is the active principle of all things. One must have renounced all common sense to doubt it, and it is a waste of time to try to prove such self evident truth.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the foundational role of intelligence in understanding existence and criticizes the futility of questioning obvious truths.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau asserts that intelligence is the driving force behind all creations and realities. He believes that doubting this fundamental principle reflects a denial of common sense, and therefore, any attempt to validate such an obvious truth is a futile exercise. This highlights the importance of recognizing and acknowledging the inherent role of reason and intelligence in our lives.
Themes
IntelligenceTruthCommon SensePhilosophyExistence
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about the role of reason in society, one could introduce this quote to emphasize the importance of intelligence.
More from Jean-Jacques Rousseau
All quotes →The infant, on opening his eyes, ought to see his country, and to the hour of his death never lose sight of it.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
O love, if I regret the age when one savors you, it is not for the hour of pleasure, but for the one that follows it.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
Those people who treat politics and morality separately will never understand either of them.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
As evening approached, I came down from the heights of the island, and I liked then to go and sit on the shingle in some secluded spot by the lake; there the noise of the waves and the movement of the water, taking hold of my senses and driving all other agitation from my soul, would plunge me into delicious reverie in which night often stole upon me unawares.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
Similar quotes
Never increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything.
William Of OckhamRead
Today, no walls can separate humanitarian or human rights crises in one part of the world from national security crises in another. What begins with the failure to uphold the dignity of one life all too often ends with a calamity for entire nations.
Kofi AnnanRead
It is a misfortune that necessity has induced men to accord greater license to this formidable engine, in order to obtain liberty, than can be borne with less important objects in view; for the press, like fire, is an excellent servant, but a terrible master.
James F. CooperRead
You have no idea how fragile an actor's self-worth is.
Elia KazanRead
We are the echo of the future.
W. S. MerwinRead
Let a man set his heart only on doing the will of God and he is instantly free. If we understand our first and sole duty to consist of loving God supremely and loving everyone, even our enemies, for God's dear sake, then we can enjoy spiritual tranquility under every circumstance.
Aiden Wilson TozerRead