Of the Social Contract and Other Political Writings Quotes

“This people, poor but free from need, in the most perfect independence, thus multiplied in a unity that nothing could pervert. It had no virtues, since without vices to overcome doing good cost it nothing; and it was good and just without even knowing what justice or virtue were. The strength whereby this hardworking, independent life attached the Swiss to their fatherland produced two greater means of defending it, viz. commonality of resolution and courage in combat.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Of the Social Contract and Other Political Writings

“May those who have all things necessary for life not be also obliged to have cash money, whether to pay land taxes and other levies, or to provide for imagined needs and for a luxury which, without contributing to the well-being of the person who displays it, merely excites the envy and hatred of others!”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Of the Social Contract and Other Political Writings

“May those who have all things necessary for life not be also
obliged to have cash money, whether to pay land taxes and other levies, or to
provide for imagined needs and for a luxury which, without contributing to the
well-being of the person who displays it, merely excites the envy and hatred of
others!”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Of the Social Contract and Other Political Writings