Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains. Those who think themselves the masters of others are indeed greater slaves than they.

The French painter Rousseau was once asked why he put a naked woman on a red sofa in the middle of his jungle pictures. He answered, 'I needed a bit of red there.'

The want of occupation is no less the plague of society than of solitude.

In any case, frequent punishments are a sign of weakness or slackness in the government. There is no man so bad that he cannot be made good for something. No man should be put to death, even as an example, if he can be left to live without danger to society.

To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man, to surrender the rights of humanity and even its duties.

To endure is the first thing that a child ought to learn, and that which he will have the most need to know.

I long remained a child, and I am still one in many respects.