"So long as government and law provide for the security and well-being of men in their common life, the arts, literature and the sciences, less despotic though perhaps more powerful, fling garlands of flowers over the chains which weigh them down. They stifle in men’s breasts that sense of original liberty, for which they seem to have been born; cause them to love their own slavery, and so make of them what is called a civilised people."

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Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Added on April 10, 2026
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Original Language: English

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Imported from EN Wikiquote

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