Alas, it is when we are beginning to leave this mortal body that it most offends us!
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAUThe people of England regards itself as free; but it is grossly mistaken; it is free only during the election of members of parliament. As soon as they are elected, slavery overtakes it, and it is nothing.
More Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
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However great a man’s natural talent may be, the act of writing cannot be learned all at once.
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Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.
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MAN is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. One thinks himself the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they.
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What, then, is the government? An intermediary body established between the subjects and the sovereign for their mutual communication, a body charged with the execution of the laws and the maintenance of freedom, both civil and political.
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If there is in this world a well-attested account, it is that of vampires. Nothing is lacking: official reports, affidavits of well-known people, of surgeons, of priests, of magistrates; the judicial proof is most complete. And with all that, who is there who believes in vampires?
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The imagination which causes so many ravages among us, never speaks to the heart of savages.
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I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.
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Man’s first law is to watch over his own preservation; his first care he owes to himself; and as soon as he reaches the age of reason, he becomes the only judge of the best means to preserve himself; he becomes his own master.
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Being wealthy isn’t just a question of having lots of money. It’s a question of what we want. Wealth isn’t an absolute, it’s relative to desire. Every time we seek something that we can’t afford, we can be counted as poor, how much money we may actually have.
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The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying ‘this is mine’, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society.
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Everything is good as it comes from the hands of the Maker of the world, but degenerates once it gets into the hands of man
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In any real democracy, magistracy isn’t a benefit—it’s a burdensome responsibility that can’t fairly be imposed on one individual rather than another.
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I would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices.
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MAN is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. One thinks himself the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they.
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One does not drink. One gives a kiss to his glass, and the wine returns a caress to you.
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