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.

There is no evildoer who could not be made good for something.

To try to conceal our own heart is a bad means to read that of others.

...in respect of riches, no citizen shall ever be wealthy enough to buy another, and none poor enough to be forced to sell himself.

If there were a people consisting of gods, they would be governed democratically. So perfect a government is not suitable to men.

Do you not know...that a child badly taught is farther from being wise than one not taught at all?

It is in man's heart that the life of nature's spectacle exists; to see it, one must feel it.