"As soon as any man says of the affairs of the State "What does it matter to me?" the State may be given up for lost."

...when the laws have ceased to be executed, as this can only come from the corruption of the republic, the state is already lost.

What makes you think I care about my political career? All that matters to me is what is happening in the world, which I think is heading for disaster. I can't stand by and see us pretend everything is all right when I know we are heading for catastrophe. It isn't only Europe. It is a question of whether this country is going to cut itself off from the Western Alliance and go isolationist.

You'll lose it, if you talk about it

When the state does everything for you, it will soon take everything from you.

The moment any of us claims we do not care is the moment we cease to see what is human and valuable and savable in each other and in ourselves…

When words lose their meaning, people lose their freedom.

You are wrong. The state and its existence are essential before everything else. All this preoccupation with liberty is not serious.

Finally, when the State close to ruin subsists only on an illusory and vain form, when the social bond is broken in all hearts, when the barest interest brazenly assumes the sacred name of public good; then the general will grows mute, everyone, prompted by secret motives, no more states opinions as a Citizen than if the State had never existed, and iniquitous decrees with no other goal than particular interest are falsely passed under the name of Laws.

If you don't have something important to care about, you will naturally care about things that make you stupid, angry, and depressed.

How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something, but to be someone.

When threatened, the first thing a democracy gives up is democracy.

If an election can cause us to lose everything, what is it exactly that we have in the first place?

ANARCHIST. I told you to begin by abolishing the State. Now we are all lost.