Jean-Jacques Rousseau (; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century Romanticism of French expression. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought.
His novel Émile: or, On Education is a treatise on the education of the whole person for citizenship. His sentimental novel Julie, or the New Heloise was of importance to the development of pre-romanticism and romanticism in fiction. Rousseau's autobiographical writings—his Confessions, which initiated the modern autobiography, and his Reveries of a Solitary Walker—exemplified the late 18th-century movement known as the Age of Sensibility, featuring an increasing focus on subjectivity and introspection that has characterized the modern age. His Discourse on the Origin of Inequality and his On the Social Contract are cornerstones in modern political and social thought.
Rousseau was a successful composer of music. He wrote seven operas as well as music in other forms, and he made contributions to music as a theorist.
During the period of the French Revolution, Rousseau was the most popular of the philosophes among members of the Jacobin Club. Rousseau, a Freemason, was interred as a national hero in the Panthéon in Paris, in 1794, 16 years after his death.
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Famous quotes by jean-jacques rousseau:
“There are two things to be considered with regard to any scheme. In the first place, ‘Is it good in itself?’ In the second, ‘Can it be easily put into practise?’”
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778)
“Ordinary readers, forgive my paradoxes: one must make them when one reflects; and whatever you may say, I prefer being a man with paradoxes than a man with prejudices.”
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778)
“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 Rousseau (1712–1778)
“Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains.”
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778)
“I may be no better, but at least I am different.”
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778)