"People in their natural state are basically good. But this natural innocence,however, is corrupted by the evils of society."
"Leave those vain moralists, my friend, and return to the depth of your soul: that is where you will always rediscover the source of the sacred fire which so often inflamed us with love of the sublime virtues; that is where you will see the eternal image of true beauty, the contemplation of which inspires us with a holy enthusiasm."
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Source: 'La Nouvelle Hèloise' (1761, ed. M. Launay, 1967) pt. 2, letter 11
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"I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery."
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