Jean-Jacques Rousseau said this quote

“ They say that Caliph Omar, when consulted about what had to be done with the library of Alexandria, answered as follows: 'If the books of this library contain matters opposed to the Koran, they are bad and must be burned. If they contain only the doctrine of the Koran, burn them anyway, for they are superfluous.' Our learned men have cited this reasoning as the height of absurdity. However, suppose Gregory the Great was there instead of Omar and the Gospel instead of the Koran. The library would still have been burned, and that might well have been the finest moment in the life of this illustrious pontiff. ”

Famous Quotes of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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Or, rather, let us be more simple and less vain.

~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Every person has a right to risk their own life for the preservation of it.

~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau

It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.

~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau

To live is not to breathe but to act. It is to make use of our organs, our senses, our faculties, of all the parts of ourselves which give us the sentiment of our existence. The man who has lived the most is not he who has counted the most years but he who has most felt life.

~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau