{
  "type": "quote",
  "site": {
    "name": "Leafy Quotes",
    "language": "en",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com"
  },
  "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.",
  "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/sufficiently-sensitive-to-understand",
  "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/sufficiently-sensitive-to-understand.json",
  "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/sufficiently-sensitive-to-understand.md",
  "id": "4897356b-0bd9-4cb0-aa3a-9213de198237",
  "slug": "sufficiently-sensitive-to-understand",
  "text": "sufficiently sensitive to understand every human passion, and calm enough to be free from passion. If there is any time in our life when this study is likely to be appreciated, it is this that I have chosen for Emile; before this time men would have been strangers to him; later on he would have been like them. Convention, the effects of which he already perceives, has not yet made him its slave, the passions, whose consequences he realises, have not yet stirred his heart. He is a man; he takes an interest in his brethren; he is a just man and he judges his peers. Now it is certain that if he judges them rightly he will not want to change places with any one of them, for the goal of all their anxious efforts is the result of prejudices which he does not share, and that goal seems to him a mere dream. For his own part, he has all he wants within his reach. How should he be dependent on any one when he is self-sufficing and free from prejudice? Strong arms, good health, [Footnote: I think I may fairly reckon health and strength among the advantages he has obtained by his education, or rather among the gifts of nature which his education has preserved for him.] moderation, few needs, together with the means to satisfy those needs, are his. He has been brought up in complete liberty and servitude is the greatest ill he understands. He pities these miserable kings, the slaves of all who obey them; he pities these false prophets fettered by their empty fame; he pities these rich fools, martyrs to their own pomp; he pities these ostentatious voluptuaries, who spend their life in deadly dullness that they may seem to enjoy its pleasures.",
  "language": "en",
  "author": {
    "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau",
    "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau"
  },
  "book": {
    "title": "Emile; or On Education",
    "slug": "emile-or-on-education",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education"
  },
  "character": null,
  "chapter": null,
  "chapter_parent": null,
  "page": null,
  "verified": false,
  "original": null,
  "other_languages": [],
  "topics": [
    {
      "name": "freedom",
      "slug": "freedom",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom"
    },
    {
      "name": "independence",
      "slug": "independence",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence"
    },
    {
      "name": "moderation",
      "slug": "moderation",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/moderation"
    }
  ],
  "source": {
    "name": "Wikiquote",
    "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_IV",
    "license": {
      "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
      "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
    }
  },
  "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:34",
  "more_from_book": [
    {
      "id": "f9addfa9-a0ca-4ffe-8f74-8adf51607317",
      "slug": "where-is-the-man",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/where-is-the-man",
      "text": "Where is the man who owes nothing to the land in which he lives? Whatever that land may be, he owes to it the most precious thing possessed by man, the morality of his actions and the love of virtue.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "homeland",
          "slug": "homeland",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/homeland"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_V",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:49:17"
    },
    {
      "id": "fd1e8dc4-3494-489f-bd85-64f0284b2d67",
      "slug": "gluttony-is-the",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/gluttony-is-the",
      "text": "Gluttony is the vice of feeble minds. The gourmand has his brains in his palate, he can do nothing but eat; he is so stupid and incapable that the table is the only place for him, and dishes are the only things he knows anything about. Let us leave him to this business without regret; it is better for him and for us.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "stupidity",
          "slug": "stupidity",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stupidity"
        },
        {
          "name": "food",
          "slug": "food",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/food"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_II",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:49:16"
    },
    {
      "id": "e128a050-d429-4d14-bcf2-787868b4245a",
      "slug": "nature-never-deceives",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/nature-never-deceives",
      "text": "Nature never deceives us; it is always we who deceive ourselves.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "nature",
          "slug": "nature",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature"
        },
        {
          "name": "lies",
          "slug": "lies",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lies"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_III",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:49:16"
    }
  ]
}