I hate books; they only teach us to talk about things we know nothing about.

Those that are most slow in making a promise are the most faithful in the performance of it.

The more humanity owes him, the more society denies him. Every door is shut against him, even when he has a right to its being opened: and if he ever obtains justice, it is with much greater difficulty than others obtain favors.

Ought to have a universal compulsory force to move and arrange each part in the manner best suited to the whole. Just as nature gives each man an absolute power over all his members, the social compact gives the body politic an absolute power over all its members." "We grant that each person alienates, by the social compact, only that portion of his power, his goods, and liberty whose use is of consequence to the community; but we must also grant that only the sovereign is the judge of what is of consequence.

Quit thy childhood, my friend, and wake up!

Definitions would be good things if we did not use words to make them.

No man has any natural authority over his fellow men.