“Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains. Those who think themselves the masters of others are indeed greater slaves than they.”
“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.”
“Man is born free but today everywhere he is in chains.”
“Man is born free and is everywhere in chains”
“Every man having been born free and master of himself, no one else may under any pretext whatever subject him without his consent. To assert that the son of a slave is born a slave is to assert that he is not born a man.”
“Not only was I not born to be a slave: I was not born to hope to become the equal of the slave-master. They had, the masters, incontestably, the rope—in time, with enough, they would hang themselves with it. They were not to hang me: I was to see to that.”