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Who really said it

Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains

Written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712–1778 · Genevan philosopher of the Enlightenment
Verified Free to reuse

This is the celebrated opening sentence of Rousseau’s “Du contrat social” (The Social Contract), 1762, Book I, ch. 1. Rousseau wrote it in French — “L’homme est né libre, et partout il est dans les fers” — and the familiar English phrasing is a translator’s rendering, most often G. D. H. Cole’s 1913 version (which uses a semicolon; the comma is a common later variant).

Last verified 10 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (Du contrat social), Book I, ch. 1, 1762 — trans. G. D. H. Cole, 1913

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Provenance

The source

Work
Du contrat social (The Social Contract)
Location
Book I, Chapter 1 — “Subject of the First Book”
First published
1762 (Amsterdam, Marc-Michel Rey)
Translation
English wording from G. D. H. Cole’s 1913 translation

Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. One thinks himself the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they. How did this change come about? I do not know. What can make it legitimate? That question I think I can answer.

G. D. H. Cole’s 1913 English translation. Rousseau’s French original: “L’homme est né libre, et partout il est dans les fers. Tel se croit le maître des autres, qui ne laisse pas d’être plus esclave qu’eux.”

The Social Contract, Book I, ch. 1 (Cole translation)

How we verified this

  • The line opens Book I, ch. 1 of Rousseau’s “Du contrat social” (1762); Wikiquote records the French original and the Cole rendering in its sourced entry.
  • G. D. H. Cole’s 1913 translation reads “Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains,” as reproduced in the Marxists Internet Archive text.
  • The popular comma form (“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains”) is a punctuation variant of the same sentence; the words are Rousseau’s via his translators.
Public domain

Rousseau’s French original was first published in 1762 and is long in the public domain. The specific English wording shown is G. D. H. Cole’s 1913 translation, also published before 1931 and therefore in the public domain in the United States.

This reflects the original work, which is public domain. If your exact English wording comes from a specific modern translation, that translation may itself still be under copyright — check the edition you quote.

Fact-check

What people get wrong

The attribution to Rousseau is correct — this really does open The Social Contract. The confusion is about the exact words, since Rousseau wrote in French and the memorable English belongs to his translators.

Rousseau’s translators, not Rousseau paraphrase

Rousseau wrote “L’homme est né libre, et partout il est dans les fers.” The polished English — “Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains” — is G. D. H. Cole’s 1913 translation; other renderings use “shackles” or “bondage.”

quote sites mis-worded

The widely shared comma form (“Man is born free, and everywhere…”) and the “Man was born free” variant differ slightly from Cole’s semicolon original, as the Wikiquote entry shows.

The thought and the sentence are genuinely Rousseau’s, from the opening of The Social Contract (1762) — only the English phrasing is a translator’s.

Context

Why it mattered

Rousseau opens The Social Contract with a paradox: humans are naturally free, yet live everywhere under constraint. The rest of the book asks not how to break every chain, but how political authority can be made legitimate — grounded in the consent and “general will” of the people rather than force.

The sentence became a rallying phrase in the French and later revolutions, and remains a touchstone in debates about freedom, authority, and the state.

Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Freedom

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

The Social Contract, Book I ch. 1 (Cole)marxists.org

Full text of G. D. H. Cole’s 1913 translation, opening with the line.
The Social Contracten.wikiquote.org

Sourced entry with the French original, Cole translation, and variants.
Jean-Jacques Rousseauplato.stanford.edu

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy overview of Rousseau and the Social Contract.
The Social Contractbritannica.com

Encyclopaedia Britannica summary of the 1762 work and its arguments.
The Social Contract & Discourses (Cole, 1913)gutenberg.org

Project Gutenberg ebook of G. D. H. Cole’s 1913 English translation, downloadable in multiple formats.

The true author

About Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

1712–1778 · Genevan philosopher, writer & composer of the Enlightenment

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) was a Geneva-born philosopher whose political and educational writings helped shape the French Revolution and modern democratic thought. Du contrat social (1762) argued that legitimate political authority rests on a “general will” agreed by the people. Its opening line became one of the most quoted sentences in all of political philosophy.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Du contrat social (Amsterdam: Marc-Michel Rey, 1762), Book I, ch. 1; trans. G. D. H. Cole, The Social Contract and Discourses (London: J. M. Dent, 1913).

MLA (9th ed.)

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Social Contract and Discourses. Translated by G. D. H. Cole, J. M. Dent, 1913. Originally published as Du contrat social, Marc-Michel Rey, 1762.

APA (7th ed.)

Rousseau, J.-J. (1913). The social contract and discourses (G. D. H. Cole, Trans.). J. M. Dent. (Original work published 1762)

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