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Jean-Jacques Rousseau on Writing

1712–1778 France

← All quotes by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

3 quotes

I felt that writing for bread would soon have stifled my genius and destroyed my talents, which were more those of the heart than of the pen, and arose solely from a proud and elevated manner of thinking, which alone could support them.

The need of success … might have made me strive to say what might please the multitude, rather than what was true and useful, and instead of a distinguished author which I might possibly become, I should have ended in becoming nothing but a mere scribbler.

I have always felt that the position of an author is not and cannot be distinguished and respectable, except in so far as it is not a profession. It is too difficult to think nobly, when one thinks in order to live. In order to be able and to venture to utter great truths, one must not be dependent on success.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.