{
  "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/they-say-french",
  "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/they-say-french.json",
  "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/they-say-french.md",
  "id": "77a53718-dc36-49ef-9e05-2e5320b6b3f8",
  "slug": "they-say-french",
  "text": "They say French is more chaste than other languages; for my own part I think it more obscene; for it seems to me that the purity of a language does not consist in avoiding coarse expressions but in having none. Indeed, if we are to avoid them, they must be in our thoughts, and there is no language in which it is so difficult to speak with purity on every subject than French.\n\nOne could not imagine more modest language than that of the Bible, just because of its plainness of speech. The same things translated into French would become immodest. What I ought to say to Emile will sound pure and honourable to him; but to make the same impression in print would demand a like purity of heart in the reader.",
  "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": "language",
      "slug": "language",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/language"
    }
  ],
  "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": "2026-09-25T22:39:36",
  "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"
    }
  ]
}