Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
Articles:
1. Men are born free and remain free and equal in rights. Social
distinctions can be based only on public utility.
2. The aim of every political association is the preservation of the natural
and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property,
security, and resistance to oppression.
3. The sources of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation; no body,
no individual can exercise authority that does not proceed from it in
plain terms.
4. Liberty consists in the power to do anything that does not injure others;
accordingly, the exercise of the rights of each man has no limits except
those that secure the enjoyment of these same rights to the other
members of society. These limits can be determined only by law.
5. The law has only the rights to forbid such actions as are injurious to
society. Nothing can be forbidden that is not interdicted by the law, and
no one can be constrained to do that which it does not order.
6. Law is the expression of the general will. All citizens have the right to
take part personally, or by their representatives, and its formation. It
must be the same for all, whether it protects or punishes. All citizens,
being equal in its eyes, are equally eligible to all public dignities, places,
and employments, according to their capacities, and without other
distinction than that of their virtues and talents.