Man is weak when he is dependent, and is his own master before he comes to be strong.
 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality Among Men (1755). copy citation

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Author Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Source Discourse on the Origin of Inequality Among Men
Topic master
Date 1755
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by G. D. H. Cole
Weblink https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Discourse_on_the_Origin_of_Inequality_Amo...

Context

“that he would strangle one of his younger brothers, if he should be troublesome to him, or bite the arm of another, if he put him to any inconvenience. But that man in the state of nature is both strong and dependent involves two contrary suppositions. Man is weak when he is dependent, and is his own master before he comes to be strong. Hobbes did not reflect that the same cause, which prevents a savage from making use of his reason, as our jurists hold, prevents him also from abusing his faculties, as Hobbes himself allows: so that it may be justly said that savages are not bad merely because they do not know what it is to be good:” source