رُحت أتأمل وضع بني آدم البئيسين، يسبحون في بحر هائل من الآراء لا دليل لهم ولا مشير. تتقاذفهم أهواؤهم الهائجة، لا معين لهم سوى ملاح غير مجرب، يجهل الطر… - Jean-Jacques Rousseau

It would be equally unreasonable to imagine that men at first threw themselves into the arms of an absolute master, without any conditions or consideration on his side; and that the first means contrived by jealous and unconquered men for their common safety was to run hand over head into slavery. In fact, why did they give themselves superiors, if it was not to be defended by them against oppression, and protected in their lives, liberties, and properties, which are in a manner the constitutional elements of their being?

It is in order not to become victim of an assassin that we consent to die if
we become assassins.

Self-esteem is the strongest incentive to elevated souls: self-pride, fertile in illusions, often disguises itself, and is mistaken for the former; but when once the fraud is discovered, the danger ceases; for though it is difficult to eradicate it entirely, it may easily be kept in subjection.