Full Idea
Most of our ills are of our own making, and we could have avoided nearly all of them by preserving the simple, regular and solitary lifestyle prescribed to us by nature.
Gist of Idea
Most human ills are self-inflicted; the simple, solitary, regular natural life is good
Source
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Discourse on the Origin of Inequality [1754], Part I)
Book Reference
Rousseau,Jean-Jacques: 'The Basic Political Writings', ed/tr. Cress,Donald A. [Hackett 1987], p.42
A Reaction
It is important that he is not really disagreeing with Hobbes's pessimistic view of natural life as 'nasty'. Rousseau attributes that to a later stage, when people are ineptly beginning to emerge from the state of nature. I'm an optimist here.