The first person, who having enclosed a plot of land, took it into his head to say, 'this is mine' and found people simple enough to believe him, was… - Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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The first person, who having enclosed a plot of land, took it into his head to say, 'this is mine' and found people simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of civil society. What crimes, wars, murders, what miseries and horrors would the human race have been spared, had someone pulled up the stakes or filled in the ditch and cried out to his fellow men: 'do not listen to this imposter, you are lost if you forget that the fruits of the Earth belong to all, and the Earth to no one'.

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About Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (June 28, 1712 – July 2, 1778) was a major French-speaking Genevan philosopher of Enlightenment whose political ideas influenced the French Revolution, the development of socialist theory, and the growth of nationalism.

Biography information from Wikiquote

Also Known As

Alternative Names: Citizen of Geneva Jean Jacques Rousseau J. J. Rousseau Rousseau J.J. Rousseau JJ Rousseau
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...the Despot is Master only as long as he is the strongest, and as soon as he can be driven out he cannot protest against violence. The uprising that ends by strangling or dethroning a Sultan is as Lawful an act as those by which he disposed, the day before, of the lives and goods of his Subjects.

Der wirklich freie Mensch will nur, was er vermag, und tut nur, was ihm gefällt.

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