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"The first man, who, after enclosing a piece of ground, took it into his head to say, "This is mine," and found people simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of civil society. How many crimes, how many wars, how many murders, how many misfortunes and horrors, would that man have saved the human species, who pulling up the stakes or filling up the ditches should have cried to his fellows: Be sure not to listen to this imposter; you are lost, if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong equally to us all, and the earth itself to nobody!"
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"Reasonable regulations regarding the ownership of weapons are appropriate."

"Ownership breeds slavery: with every single thing that you acquire, comes a new worry of not losing that thing."

"I' have not had to borrow or beg for years. This world is indeed all yours. If you know how to 'see', if you know how to view the world, if you know how to understand the world, then the world is truly all yours. You are truly the Owner."

"Appreciation, not possession, makes a thing ours."

"Everything you have is bought by the currency of time."

"One man told me, 'My tooth is hurting'. Why would 'your' tooth hurt you? This is considered a contradicting statement. What is yours, it will never give you pain and what is not yours will always give you pain. If you expound on this, you will have the solution!"

"No man but feels more of a man in the world if he have a bit of ground that he can call his own. However small it is on the surface, it is four thousand miles deep; and that is a very handsome property."

"As long as you are the owner ('I am Chandubhai and all this is mine'), the worldly life remains. When does the ownership go away? When the wrong belief goes away."
Explore more quotes by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

"Take from the philosopher the pleasure of being heard and his desire for knowledge ceases."

"Those that are most slow in making a promise are the most faithful in the performance of it."

"Reading, solitude, idleness, a soft and sedentary life, intercourse with women and young people, these are perilous paths for a young man, and these lead him constantly into danger."
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