Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes

Every man has the right to risk his own life in order to preserve it. Has it ever been said that a man who throws himself out the window to escape from a fire is guilty of suicide?

And by a prudent flight and cunning save A life which valour could not, from the grave. A better buckler I can soon regain, But who can get another life again?

Most people, when they meet me, one of the first things they say is, 'Why would you voluntarily subject yourself to war? Why would you go into these places where you know there's a risk of getting killed?'

I've always been the kind of person who, if there's anything that can kill me, I want to know something about it.

I'd like to think, if I was ever in a fight, I'd win, although I'd probably run in the opposite direction.

In every man there is an instinctive and passionate reaction if his person or liberty is attacked.

The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it.

There is nothing more noble than putting yourself in the line of fire to save a life.

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. A man who has nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance at being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

A man's own safety is a god that sometimes makes very grim demands.

A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

One of the eternal rights is the individual’s right to live. The strongest of all instincts—self preservation—is an assertion of that right.

I do not wish to be melodramatic, but at some point I have to say it. If something bad should happen to me, I want you to know that my commitment to what I am doing has been freely contracted, with the joy of knowing that this is precisely what I should be doing at this moment. Fear is constantly present in each one of us, because none of us are movie heroes. But we refuse to accept that fear must condition our actions and prevent us from doing what with a cool head and fervent heart we understand should be done.

My wife Lorrie actually looked in the dictionary to see what the definition was of heroism because it had been used so much. She found at least one definition is someone who chooses to put themselves at risk to save another.

To seek trouble - this is not courage, this is madness. Courage is the willingness of man to sensibly face the troubles he cannot avoid.

I never thought it was fair that women couldn't travel freely because it was dangerous. I'd stay by myself on the North Carolina coast for a couple of weeks, with my dog and my gun, and my mom would be terrified. I told her, if I stay home, a lamp could fall on my head. You can't spend your whole life inside because you're scared.

I'm not really a fighter, but I've never backed down from anyone in Paris. I feel I can't. In London, I'll just run because I'm not going to fight 50 Wolverhampton Wanderers fans.

I’m not running away from my responsibilities. I’m running to them. There’s nothing negative about running away to save my life.

I think that I am willing to risk my life in order to have more freedom.

Running away for fear of death, leaving one's dear ones, temples or music to take care of themselves, is irreligion; it is cowardice.

Most men expose themselves in battle enough to save their honor, few wish to do so more than sufficiently, or than is necessary to make the design for which they expose themselves succeed.

When security comes, every man for himself

The chances we take, knowing no better than to fall or to stand back and hold ourselves in... protecting our hearts with the tightest of grips.

Any man who retreats into a cave which has only one opening deserves to die.

Sometimes she went so far as to wish that she should find herself in a difficult position, so that she might have the pleasure of being as heroic as the occasion demanded.