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Quotation from Discourse on the Origin of Inequality by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“With the poet, it is gold and silver, but with the philosopher it is iron and corn, which have civilized men, and ruined mankind.”
Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Second Part, trans. Anonymous (Harvard Classics, 1910)
Rousseau names metallurgy and agriculture as the arts whose invention produced the great revolution toward property and inequality.
Citation: "With the poet, it is gold and silver, but with the philosopher it is iron and corn, which have civilized men, and ruined mankind." — Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Second Part, trans. Anonymous (Harvard Classics, 1910). (id rousseau-discourse-on-inequality-q6)
Portrait: Portrait of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), Maurice Quentin de La Tour, Public domain.
