Rights of Man (1791-1792)

Their wordsI had seen enough of the miseries of war, to wish it might never more have existence in the world, and that some other mode might be found out to settle the differences that should occasionally arise in the neighbourhood of nations.

Their wordsEvery age and generation must be as free to act for itself in all cases as the age and generations which preceded it. The vanity and presumption of governing beyond the grave is the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies.

Their wordsLay then the axe to the root, and teach governments humanity. It is their sanguinary punishments which corrupt mankind.

Their wordsMan did not enter into society to become worse than he was before, nor to have fewer rights than he had before, but to have those rights better secured. His natural rights are the foundation of all his civil rights.

Their wordsThe fact therefore must be that the individuals themselves, each in his own personal and sovereign right, entered into a compact with each other to produce a government: and this is the only mode in which governments have a right to arise, and the only principle on which they have a right to exist.

Their wordsA constitution is a thing antecedent to a government, and a government is only the creature of a constitution.

Their wordsTitles are but nicknames, and every nickname is a title. The thing is perfectly harmless in itself, but it marks a sort of foppery in the human character, which degrades it.

Their wordsThirdly. Because the idea of hereditary legislators is as inconsistent as that of hereditary judges, or hereditary juries; and as absurd as an hereditary mathematician, or an hereditary wise man; and as ridiculous as an hereditary poet laureate.

Their wordsToleration is not the opposite of Intolerance, but is the counterfeit of it. Both are despotisms.

Their wordsA Declaration of Rights is, by reciprocity, a Declaration of Duties also. Whatever is my right as a man is also the right of another; and it becomes my duty to guarantee as well as to possess.

Their wordsIf universal peace, civilisation, and commerce are ever to be the happy lot of man, it cannot be accomplished but by a revolution in the system of governments. All the monarchical governments are military.

Their wordsGreat part of that order which reigns among mankind is not the effect of government. It has its origin in the principles of society and the natural constitution of man.

Their wordsGovernment is no farther necessary than to supply the few cases to which society and civilisation are not conveniently competent; and instances are not wanting to show, that everything which government can usefully add thereto, has been performed by the common consent of society, without government.

Their wordsHereditary succession is a burlesque upon monarchy. It puts it in the most ridiculous light, by presenting it as an office which any child or idiot may fill.

Their wordsBy ingrafting representation upon democracy, we arrive at a system of government capable of embracing and confederating all the various interests and every extent of territory and population; and that also with advantages as much superior to hereditary government, as the republic of letters is to hereditary literature.

Their wordsThat monarchy is all a bubble, a mere court artifice to procure money, is evident (at least to me) in every character in which it can be viewed.

Their wordsA constitution is not the act of a government, but of a people constituting a government; and government without a constitution, is power without a right.

Their wordsIndependence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.

Their wordsBy adopting this method, not only the poverty of the parents will be relieved, but ignorance will be banished from the rising generation, and the number of poor will hereafter become less, because their abilities, by the aid of education, will be greater.

Their wordsThis support, as already remarked, is not of the nature of a charity but of a right.

Their wordsBut the chief object of this progressive tax (besides the justice of rendering taxes more equal than they are) is, as already stated, to extirpate the overgrown influence arising from the unnatural law of primogeniture, and which is one of the principal sources of corruption at elections.

Their wordsWhen it shall be said in any country in the world, my poor are happy; neither ignorance nor distress is to be found among them; my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars; the aged are not in want, the taxes are not oppressive; the rational world is my friend, because I am the friend of its happiness: when these things can be said, then may that country boast its constitution and its government.