Jean-Jacques Rousseau - The Social Contract (1762)

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In Genoa, the word, libertas can be read on the front of prisons and on the fetters of galley-slaves. The application of this motto is fine and just.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
I would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man, to surrender the rights of humanity and even its duties.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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?

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Tranquility is found also in dungeons; but is that enough to make them desirable places to live in?

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
As soon as any man says of the affairs of the State "What does it matter to me?" the State may be given up for lost.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Even if each man could alienate himself, he could not alienate his children: they are born men and free; their liberty belongs to them, and no one but they has the right to dispose of it.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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