EliteED

“The natural man lives for himself; he is the unit, the whole, dependent only on himself and on his like. The citizen is but the numerator of a fraction, whose value depends on its denominator; his value depends upon the whole, that is, on the community. Good social institutions are those best fitted to make a man unnatural, to exchange his independence for dependence, to merge the unit in the group, so that he no longer regards himself as one, but as a part of the whole, and is only conscious of the common life.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile

“Nature made me happy and good, and if I am otherwise, it is society's fault.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, or On Education

“When one has suffered or fears suffering, one pities those who suffer; but when one is suffering, one pities only oneself.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, or On Education

“I am not worried about pleasing clever minds or fashionable people. In every period there will be men fated to be governed by the opinions of their century, their country, and their society. For that very reason, a freethinker or philosopher today would have been nothing but a fanatic at the time of the League.* One must not write for such readers, if one wishes to live beyond one’s own age.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau