Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Social contract, inspired French Revolution
Quotes by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The true founder of civil society was the first man who, having enclosed a plot of land, thought of saying 'This is mine' and found people simple enough to believe him.
The rich, in their turn, no sooner knew the pleasure of dominating than they disdained all other pleasures.
The more we depart from the state of nature, the more we are removed from happiness.
The general will is always for the common good, but the deliberations of the people are not always equally enlightened.
The child should be left to develop naturally, with minimal intervention from adults.
Pity is a natural sentiment, which, by moderating in each individual the activity of self-love, contributes to the mutual preservation of the whole species.
The right of property is the most sacred of all the rights of citizens, and more important in some respects than liberty itself.
The state of nature is a state of peace and mutual assistance, not a war of all against all.
The sovereignty, being nothing but the exercise of the general will, can never be alienated.
To live is not to breathe, but to act. It is to make use of our organs, our senses, our faculties, of all the parts of ourselves which give us the sentiment of our existence.
The laws are always useful to those who possess and harmful to those who have nothing.
Every man has a natural right to everything he needs.
The legislator is the engineer who invents the machine, but the people are the workmen who put it together and make it work.
The first source of evil is the inequality of conditions.
The right of the strongest is a right in appearance only, and never in effect.
The only natural right is the right to self-preservation.
The general will is not the sum of individual wills, but the common interest.
The child should be educated according to nature, not according to society's artificial conventions.
Luxury corrupts both the rich and the poor, the one by possession and the other by covetousness.
The true political liberty is not to do what one wants, but to be able to do what one ought.