All through life a man has need of a counsellor and guide.

Civilization is a hopeless race to discover remedies for the evils it produces.

Sacrifice life to truth.

One thinks himself the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they.

Whoever refuses to obey the general will will be forced to do so by the entire body; this means merely that he will be forced to be free.

It is easier to conquer than to administer. With enough leverage, a finger could overturn the world; but to support the world, one must have the shoulders of Hercules.

Every man having been born free and master of himself, no one else may under any pretext whatever subject him without his consent. To assert that the son of a slave is born a slave is to assert that he is not born a man.