Rights of Man

are not a gift of nature nor a legacy of history but the reward of a struggle against the accident of birth.

Recast in definition form from: “… a gift of nature, not a legacy from past history …”

are nothing but the rights of a member of civil society — the rights of egoistic man, separated from other men and from the community.

Recast in definition form from: “… nothing but the rights of a member of civil society …”

need no establishing — God has already done that; dismiss God and what remains vacant is the place of the rights of God.

Recast in definition form from: “… in the rights of God; consequently the place remains vacant …”

mean for the modern state what the recognition of slavery meant for the ancient one: the recognition of its own natural basis — here, the egoistic man of civil society.

Recast in definition form from: “In other words, just as the ancient state had slavery as its natural basis, the modern state has as its natural basis civil society and the man of civil society, i.e., the independent man linked with other men only by the ties of private interest and unconscious natural necessity, the slave of labour for gain and of his own as …”

do not free man from religion but give him freedom of religion; do not free him from property but give him freedom of property; do not free him from the filth of gain but give him freedom of gainful occupation.

Recast in definition form from: “that the rights of man do not, therefore, free man from religion, but give him freedom of religion; that they do not free him from property, but procure for him freedom of property; that they do not free him from the filth of gain, but rather give him freedom of gainful occupation.”

rights of man, n.Definitions

rights of man