Pamphlet 8

While those who commit a crime become the enemies of the body politic by renouncing the social contract in order to act against it, frequent punishments are a sign of weakness in government. No person should be put to death or imprisoned if he can be rehabilitated or left to live without posing further danger to society. Thus the recent spate of executing fellow pamphlet writers for non-violent offenses is unjust.

From the goddess springs all justice, but if we had access to her justice we would not require laws.

Laws cannot come from individuals alone or they will uphold those individuals' biases and injustices.

Laws must be acts of the general will in order to uphold the contract that makes society; thus even the emperor must fall under the law. When the emperor behaves unlawfully, we must have the power to remove him.

The right of laying down the laws of a society belongs to members of that society; if you believe the emperor to be outside of those laws, you believe him to be outside of society. In that case, why allow him to rule?