"Who would believe that this childish punishment, inflicted upon me when only eight years old by a young woman of thirty, disposed of my tastes, my desires, my passions, and my own self for the remainder of my life, and that in a manner exactly contrary to that which should have been the natural result? When my feelings were once inflamed, my desires so went astray that, limited to what I had already felt, they did not trouble themselves to look for anything else. In spite of my hot blood, which has been inflamed with sensuality almost from my birth, I kept myself free from every taint until the age when the coldest and most sluggish temperaments begin to develop. In torments for a long time, without knowing why, I devoured with burning glances all the pretty women I met; my imagination unceasingly recalled them to me, only to make use of them in my own fashion."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Confessions_(Rousseau)
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Confessions (Rousseau)
153 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Confessions (Rousseau) →
Related Quotes
"I know nothing which exercises a more powerful influence upon my heart than an act of courage, performed at an opport…"
"I can understand how it is that the inhabitants of cities, who see nothing but walls, streets and crimes, have so lit…"
"I have learned to doubt whether a man, who is the possessor of a large fortune, whoever he may be, can be sincerely f…"
"An enemy to everything that comes under the denomination of party, faction, and cabal, I have never expected any good…"
"So difficult is it to manage the irritable amour-propre of literary men, and such great care is necessary, in paying …"
"It is in the country that one learns to love and serve humanity; one only learns to despise it in cities."
"for the first time since the existence of the world, an author permits himself, by a single stroke of the pen, to mak…"
"I might have thrown myself entirely into the most lucrative path, and, instead of lowering my pen to copying, I might…"
"It is too difficult to think nobly, when one thinks only in order to live. In order to be able and to venture to utte…"
"There is no soul so vile, no heart so barbarous, that it is not susceptible of some kind of attachment."