In fact, laws are always of use to those who possess and harmful to those who have nothing: from which it follows that the social state is advantageous to men only when all have something and none too much.
 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (1762). copy citation

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Author Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Source The Social Contract
Topic law state
Date 1762
Language English
Reference Of the Social Contract, or Principles of Political Law, Book I
Note Translated by George Douglas Howard Cole
Weblink https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Social_Contract/Book_I

Context

“M. No other French writer, to my knowledge, has understood the real meaning of the word citizen.
5. Under bad governments, this equality is only apparent and illusory: it serves only to ­keep the pauper in his poverty and the rich man in the position he has usurped. In fact, laws are always of use to those who possess and harmful to those who have nothing: from which it follows that the social state is advantageous to men only when all have something and none too much. Retrieved from "https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=The_Social_Contract/Book_I&oldid=4850183 " Category : 75% Hidden category: Subpages Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged inTalk Contributions” source