Jean-Jacques Rousseau

"The word ‘slavery’ and ‘right’ are contradictory, they cancel each other out. Whether as between one man and another, or between one man and a whole people, it would always be absurd to say: "I hereby make a covenant with you which is wholly at your expense and wholly to my advantage; I will respect it so long as I please and you shall respect it as long as I wish."

10 likes

Source: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (2012). “Discourse on the Origin of Inequality”, p.7, Courier Corporation

About the author

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Philosopher, Writer, Composer

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Swiss philosopher whose ideas on freedom and social contracts profoundly influenced modern political thought and education.

All quotes by Jean-Jacques Rousseau →

Same author

More quotes by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

See all →
Jean-Jacques Rousseau Philosopher, Writer, Composer

"The freedom of Mankind does not lie in the fact that can do what we want, but that we do not have to do that which we do not want."

Read quote
Jean-Jacques Rousseau Philosopher, Writer, Composer

"Plants are shaped by cultivation and men by education. .. We are born weak, we need strength; we are born totally unprovided, we need aid; we are born stupid, we need judgment. Everything we do not have at our birth and which we need when we are grown is given us by education."

Read quote