Patience patience quotes is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
The word ‘slavery’ and ‘right’ are contradictory, they cancel each other out. Whether as between one man and another, or between one man and a whole people, it would always be absurd to say: "I hereby make a covenant with you which is wholly at your expense and wholly to my advantage; I will respect it so long as I please and you shall respect it as long as I wish.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Slavery and rights are inherently opposing concepts that cannot coexist.
In this quote, Rousseau asserts that the concept of slavery fundamentally contradicts the principles of rights and justice. He critiques the idea of agreements that exploit one party at the expense of another, emphasizing that true respect and ethics cannot exist in a relationship founded on domination and inequality, regardless of the nature of that relationship.
Themes
SlaveryRightsJusticeEqualityCovenantDominance
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate on human rights, this quote can emphasize the incompatibility of slavery and true justice.
More from Jean-Jacques Rousseau
All quotes →The infant, on opening his eyes, ought to see his country, and to the hour of his death never lose sight of it.
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What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?
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O love, if I regret the age when one savors you, it is not for the hour of pleasure, but for the one that follows it.
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Those people who treat politics and morality separately will never understand either of them.
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As evening approached, I came down from the heights of the island, and I liked then to go and sit on the shingle in some secluded spot by the lake; there the noise of the waves and the movement of the water, taking hold of my senses and driving all other agitation from my soul, would plunge me into delicious reverie in which night often stole upon me unawares.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
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