Jean-Jacques Rousseau

'No true Democracy has ever existed, nor ever will exist.' In this selection from The Social Contract, Rousseau asserts that a state's only legitimate political authority comes from its people. One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.

The Body Politic

If I were a prince or legislator, I should not waste my time saying what ought to done; I should do it, or I should hold my peace.

The strongest is never strong enough to be forever master, if he does not transform his strength into right and obedience into duty.

You will say that the despot guarantees civil peace to his subjects. Very well. But what do they gain thereby, if the wars into which his ambition draws them, his insatiable greed, and the humiliations of his rule inflict more desolation upon them than would their own disputes? What do they gain thereby, if that very peace is one of their miseries?

The Body Politic quotes

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