"Now, a man who becomes the slave of another does not give himself; he sells himself, at the least for his subsistence: but for what does a people sell itself? A king is so far from furnishing his subjects with their subsistence that he gets his own only from them; and, according to Rabelais, kings do not live on nothing. Do subjects then give their persons on condition that the king takes their goods also? I fail to see what they have left to preserve."

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Added on April 10, 2026
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Original Language: English

Sources

I, Ch. 4.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Social_Contract