I have never believed that man's freedom consisted in doing what he wants, but rather in never doing what he does not want to do.

Force does not constitute right... obedience is due only to legitimate powers.

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.

Peter had a genius for imitation; but he lacked true genius, which is creative and makes all from nothing.

I have never thought, for my part, that man's freedom consists in his being able to do whatever he wills, but that he should not, by any human power, be forced to do what is against his will.

All kinds of frankness and honesty are terrible crimes in the eyes of society.

The social pact, far from destroying natural equality, substitutes, on the contrary, a moral and lawful equality for whatever physical inequality that nature may have imposed on mankind; so that however unequal in strength and intelligence, men become equal by covenant and by right.