Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Social Contract
- Social Contract: Chapter VII: "Let us draw up the whole account in terms easily commensurable. What man loses by..."
- Social Contract: Section 132: "Usurpers always bring about or choose disjointed times, in order to pass, under the cover..."
- Social Contract: Section 136: "I have already said what civil liberty is; with regard to equality, it is necessary..."
- Social Contract: Section 235: "In place of governing the subjects in order to render them happy, despotism makes them..."
- Social Contract: Section 254: "When the Prince no longer administers the State in accordance with laws and usurps the..."
- Social Contract: Section 256: "When the State dissolves, the abuse of Government, whatever it might be, takes the common..."
- Social Contract: Section 57: "The impulsion of mere appetite is slavery, and obedience to the law one prescribes to..."
- Social Contract: Section 92: "Every malefactor, attacking the social right, becomes by his crimes a rebel and traitor to..."
Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s treatise, Of the Social Contract, or, Principles of Political Right, represents a cornerstone of modern political and social thought. Published in 1762, the text argues against the divine right of kings, and posits notions of popular sovereignty, rule of law, and consent of the governed, wherein the whole citizenry is the only body deserving of the title sovereign.