"People in their natural state are basically good. But this natural innocence,however, is corrupted by the evils of society."
"The first person who, having enclosed a plot of land, took it into his head to say this is mine and found people simple enough to believe him was the true founder of civil society. What crimes, wars, murders, what miseries and horrors would the human race have been spared, had some one pulled up the stakes or filled in the ditch and cried out to his fellow men: "Do not listen to this imposter. You are lost if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong to all and the earth to no one!"
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Source: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (2010). “The Basic Political Writings (Second Edition)”, p.69, Hackett Publishing
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