One cannot live without obligation; it is the price we pay, so to speak, to live in civilized society. Still, our acknowledgment of the social contract is, for the most part, one-sided; that is, we readily acknowledge our own right of entitlement, but we are not so ready to recognize our debt to society. Laurence Sterne, I think, expressed it most cogently in one of his sermons thus:

For none of us liveth to himself. Romans xiv. 7.

“To the honor of human nature, the scripture teaches us that God made man upright - and though he has since found out many inventions, which have much dishonoured this noble structure, yet the foundation of it stands as it was, - the whole frame and design of it carried on upon social virtue and public spirit, and every member of us so evidently supported by this strong cement, that we may say with the apostle, that no man liveth to himself. In whatsoever light we view him, we shall see evidently, that there is no station or condition in his life, - no office or relation, or circumstance, but there arises from it so many ties, so many indispensable claims upon him, as must perpetually carry him beyond selfish consideration, and shew plainly, that was a man foolishly wicked enough to design to live to himself alone, he would either find it impracticable, or he would lose, at least, the very thing that made life itself desirable. We know that our creator, like an all-wise contriver in this, as in all other of his works has planted in mankind such appetites and inclinations as were suitable for their state; that is, such as would naturally lead him to the love of society and friendship, without which he would have been found in a worse condition than the very beasts of the field. No one therefore who lives in society, can be said to live to himself, - he lives to his GOD, - to his king, and his country. - He lives to his family, to his friends, to all under his trust, and in a word, he lives to the whole race of mankind; whatsoever has the character of man, and wears the same image of GOD that he does, is truly his brother, and has a just claim to his kindness. - That this is the case in fact, as well as in theory, may be made plain to anyone, who has made any observations upon human life. - When we have traced it through all its connections, - view’d it under the several obligations which succeed each other in a perpetual rotation through the different states of a hasty pilgrimage, we shall find that these do operate so strongly upon it, and lay us justly under so many restraints, that we are every hour sacrificing something to society, in return for the benefits we receive from it.”

- Laurence Sterne, “Vindication of Human Nature,” Sermons, (1760)