Philosophes Quotes Worksheet

1) “I don’t trust the people to do what is best for them. Granted, I want to bring some kind of order to their lives, but if they’re allowed to do it themselves, I think they’ll mess everything up. Give the power to someone who really knows what they’re doing! That’s what I say!”

Hobbes

2) “I was in court the other day, and I heard about a sheep farmer whose neighbor, an ox herder, had built a fence around the shee’s watering pond. How dare he! He should be put in jail!”

Locke, Rousseau

3) “Give me liberty or give me death!”

Locke, Rousseau, Wollstonecraft, Voltaire

4) I don’t understand why people are so worried abut what others believe! If people want to be Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or atheist, it shouldn’t matter at all, so long as they don’t interfere with anyone else.”

Voltaire

5) “I read in the newspaper about how this one guy things it would be really cool if we all wore orange pants on Thursdays. That way, Thursday wouldn’t seem so boring. Dumb idea, but at least he has the right to speak his mind!”

Voltaire

6) When will people get it through their thick skulls that, if they only put power into the hands of one person, they are always going to get a bad result? Divide the power! Make sure that no one part of the government can take over everything.”

Montesquieu

7) What people need is a government which actually does what they want it to. You see, I believe that government only messes things up because it seems to think it knows everything. Instead, it should be under the complete control of the people.”

Rousseau

8) “People? What do I care about people? Well, I don’t care! People do what the ruler wants them to do. If they like it, great! If not, too bad for them! The ruler is what is most important, not the people. The people are dirt and their lives mean nothing.”

Machiavelli

9) “I believe that the best way to improve society is to write everything down. That way, if people ever have questions, they can find out the answers relatively easily.”

Diderot

10) “This one ruler I know decided to build a swimming pool for some of the cities in his country. But then he put sharks in the swimming pools! Ha-ha! And he said that anyone who messed with him would be thrown in to the deep end! My kind of guy!”

Machiavelli

11) “Government...it’s not about the people. It’s about the ruler. The people exist only for the ruler, and the ruler’s only job is to look out for himself. And his job is really quite simple...to make sure that more and more people do what he says.”

Machiavelli (Hobbes)

12) “Don’t people get it already?!? Giving power to only one person simply isn’t the answer, regardless of how good a ruler that person is. You know why? Because there is nothing to check the power of that person. There needs to be checks and balances!”

Montesquieu

13) What people need is government! Otherwise, they’ll all be out, burning everything down and having a merry old time while society goes to pot.”

Hobbes, Locke

14) “The only real way to keep people innocent and good is to put each and every one of them in a box for the rest of their lives, with no contact between each other or anything. Of course, that is a really stupid idea, so let’s at least create a government that does its best to not mess up the people.”

Rousseau

15) “People are barbarians, who would rather spit in your face than look at it.”

Machiavelli, Hobbes,Locke