The first man, who, after enclosing a piece of ground, took it into his head to say, This is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of civil society.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAUThe first man, who, after enclosing a piece of ground, took it into his head to say, This is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of civil society.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAUWhat, 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.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAUTo live is not merely to breathe; it is to act; it is to make use of our organs, senses, faculties – of all those parts of ourselves which give us the feeling of existence.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAUThere is peace in dungeons, but is that enough to make dungeons desirable?
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAUMan was born free, and he is everywhere in chains. Those who think themselves the masters of others are indeed greater slaves than they.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAUI feel an indescribable ecstasy and delirium in melting, as it were, into the system of being, in identifying myself with the whole of nature..
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAUIf there were a nation of Gods, it would govern itself democratically. A government so perfect is not suited to men.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAUNature made me happy and good, and if I am otherwise, it is society’s fault.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAUMy love for imaginary objects and my facility in lending myself to them ended by disillusioning me with everything around me, and determined that love of solitude which I have retained ever since that time.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAUTo do is to be.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAUHe who pretends to look on death without fear lies. All men are afraid of dying, this is the great law of sentient beings, without which the entire human species would soon be destroyed.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAUMy birth was my first misfortune.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAUAlas, it is when we are beginning to leave this mortal body that it most offends us!
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAUTo renounce liberty is to renounce being a man, to surrender the rights of humanity and even its duties.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAUOh, man! Live your own life and no longer be wretched!
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAUMan is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU