- 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.
- As long as a people is compelled to obey, and obeys, it does well; as soon as it can shake the yoke, and shakes it off, it does still better; for, regaining its liberty by the same right as took it away, either it is justified in resuming it, or there was no justification for those who took it away.
- The most ancient of all societies, and the only one that is natural, is the family. ... The family then may be called the first model of political societies.
- The common liberty results from the nature of man. His first law is to provide for his own preservation, his first cares are those which he owes to himself; and as soon as he reaches years of discretion, he is the sole judge of the proper means of preserving himself, and consequently becomes his own master.
- Force made the first slaves, and their cowardice perpetuated the condition.
- The strongest is never strong enough to be always the master, unless he trans-forms strength into right, and obedience into duty.
- Let us then admit that force does not create right, and that we are obliged to obey only legitimate powers.
- Since no man has a natural authority over his fellow and force creates no right, we must conclude that conventions form the basis of all legitimate authority among men.
- The problem is to find a form of association which will defend and protect with the whole common force the person and good of each associate, and in which each, while uniting himself with all, may still obey himself alone, and remain as free as before. ...they are everywhere the same and everywhere tacitly admitted and recognized, until, on the violation of the social compact, each regains his original rights and resumes his natural liberty, while losing the conventional liberty in favour of which he renounced it.
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