We are born sensitive and from our birth onwards we are affected in various ways by our environment. As soon as we become conscious of our sensations we tend to seek or shun the things that cause them, at first because they are pleasant or unpleasant, then because they suit us or not, and at last because of judgments formed by means of the ideas of happiness and goodness which reason gives us. These tendencies gain strength and permanence with the growth of reason, but hindered by our habits they are more or less warped by our prejudices. Before this change they are what I call Nature within us.

Pero ¿con qué objeto un pueblo se vendería a un rey? Lejos de procurar la subsistencia a sus súbditos, el rey saca la suya de ellos, y según Rabelais no es poco lo que un rey necesita para vivir. ¿Será que los súbditos ceden su persona a condición de que se les quiten también sus bienes? ¿Que les quedará después para conservar?

nada enlaza tanto los corazones como llorar juntos.