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Man 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 Rousseau

If we assume man has been corrupted by an artificial civilization, what is the natural state? the state of nature from which he has been removed? imagine, wandering up and down the forest without industry, without speech, and without home.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Civilization Deep Home Imagination Man Nature Philosophy
I perceive God everywhere in His works. I sense Him in me; I see Him all around me.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

God Himself Myself Religious Spiritual
I am not made like any of those I have seen. I venture to believe that I am not made like any of those who are in existence. If I am not better, at least I am different.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Believe Different Existence Myself See
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.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Age Care Himself Judgement Law Man Philosophy Reason
There are times when I am so unlike myself that I might be taken for someone else of an entirely opposite character.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Character Myself Time
Nature made me happy and good, and if I am otherwise, it is society’s fault.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Happiness Nature People
People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Greatness People Philosophy Talk
In respect of riches, no citizen shall ever be wealthy enough to buy another, and none poor enough to be forced to sell himself.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Citizen Enough Force Humanity Respect Rich Worth
It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Difficult Live Oneself Survive Thinking
To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man, to surrender the rights of humanity and even its duties.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Humanity Liberty Man Right
There are times when I am so unlike myself that I might be taken for someone else of an entirely opposite character.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Character Myself Time
What good would it be to possess the whole universe if one were its only survivor?
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Goodness Oneself Survive
The social pact, far from destroying natural equality, substitutes, on the contrary, a moral and lawful equality for whatever physical inequality that nature may have imposed on mankind; so that however unequal in strength and intelligence, men become equal by covenant and by right.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Destroy Equality Intelligence Law Man Nature Strength
To 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 ROUSSEAU

Act Breathe Existence Feeling Live Ourselves Philosophy Yourself
In truth, laws are always useful to those with possessions and harmful to those who have nothing; from which it follows that the social state is advantageous to men only when all possess something and none has too much.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Law Man Material Truth
It is pity in which the state of nature takes the place of laws, morals and virtues, with the added advantage that no one there is tempted to disobey its gentle voice.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Justice Law Moral Nature Place Virtue Voice