Je ne dispute donc pas que la médecine ne soit utile à quelques hommes, mais je dis qu’elle est funeste au genre humain. - Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Princes always are always happy to see developing among their subjects the taste for agreeable arts and for superfluities which do not result in the export of money. For quite apart from the fact that with these they nourish that spiritual pettiness so appropriate for servitude, they know very well that all the needs which people give themselves are so many chains binding them. When Alexander wished to keep the Ichthyophagi dependent on him, he forced them to abandon fishing and to nourish themselves on foods common to other people. And no one has been able to subjugate the savages in America, who go around quite naked and live only from what their hunting provides. In fact, what yoke could be imposed on men who have no need of anything?

Bitkilerle salt öğretim üyesi ya da yazar olamk için uğraşılırsa, bu zevk yiter ve bitkiler artıki tutkularımız için birer araçtan başka bir şey olmazlar; herkes, bilmek değil de bildiğini göstermek kaygısına düşer ve ormanların ortası bile, kendini beğendirmek isteyenlerin beceri ve yetenek sahnesi durumunu alır.

Liberty is like rich food and strong wine: the strong natures accustomed to them thrive and grow even stronger on them; but they deplete, inebriate and destroy the weak.