"People in their natural state are basically good. But this natural innocence,however, is corrupted by the evils of society."
"I was not much afraid of punishment, I was only afraid of disgrace.But that I feared more than death, more than crime, more than anything in the world. I should have rejoiced if the earth had swallowed me up and stifled me in the abyss. But my invincible sense of shame prevailed over everything . It was my shame that made me impudent, and the more wickedly I behaved the bolder my fear of confession made me. I saw nothing but the horror of being found out, of being publicly proclaimed, to my face, as a thief, as a liar, and slanderer."
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Source: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1971). “The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau”
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"I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery."
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