"The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation. No body nor individual may exercise any authority which does not proceed directly from the nation. The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression. Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights."

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, adopted by the National Constituent Assembly of France, 26 August 1789. Drafted by the Marquis de Lafayette in consultation with Thomas Jefferson, then American Minister to France.