Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau Fate and Free Will Quotes

Five or six years later I should neither have been so wise nor so foolish; but it was decreed that I should only be in love once in my life. (8.2.8)

Who decrees this, exactly? Rousseau definitely believes that someone up there is guiding his decisions.

If I were master of my own destiny and that of my book, it would not see the light til long after my death and theirs. (8.2.15)

Since Rousseau has no control over when his book is published, he's letting it all hang out. Why not?

If ever there was a moment in my life in which I became another man and ceased to be myself, it was at the time I am speaking of. (9.1.20)

Will the real Rousseau please stand up? Don't expect Rousseau to start a rap battle with Eminem. To thine own self be true, buddy.