The Social Contract & Other Later Political Writings Quotes

“It is a great evil for a Chief of a nation to be born the enemy of the freedom whose defender he should be.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract & Other Later Political Writings

“I believed in childhood by authority, in youth by sentiment, in my mature years by reason; now I believe because I have always believed.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract & Other Later Political Writings

“The earth would be covered with men amongst whom there world would be almost no communication; we would make contact at some points without being united by a single one; everyone would remain isolated amongst the rest, everyone would think only of himself; our understanding would not develop; we would live without sensing anything, we would die without having lived; our entire happiness would consist of not knowing our misery; there would be neither goodness in our hearts, nor morality in our actions, and we would never have tasted the most delicious sentiment of the soul, which is the love of virtue.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract & Other Later Political Writings

“Finally, when the State close to ruin subsists only on an illusory and vain form, when the social bond is broken in all hearts, when the barest interest brazenly assumes the sacred name of public good; then the general will grows mute, everyone, prompted by secret motives, no more states opinions as a Citizen than if the State had never existed, and iniquitous decrees with no other goal than particular interest are falsely passed under the name of Laws.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract & Other Later Political Writings