{ "type": "topic", "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.", "name": "gifts", "slug": "gifts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gifts", "heading": "Quotes about gifts", "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gifts.json", "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gifts.md", "quotes_count": 20, "authors_count": 8, "parent": { "name": "relationships", "slug": "relationships", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/relationships", "heading": "Quotes about relationships" }, "children": [], "quotes": [ { "id": "48dabc5c-fac2-4be0-b305-0411e4bd224c", "slug": "dont-you-think", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-de-waal/the-hare-with-amber-eyes/dont-you-think", "text": "‘Don’t you think those netsuke should stay in Japan?’ said a stern neighbour of mine in London. And I find I am shaking as I answer, because this matters. … No, I answer. Objects have always been carried, sold, bartered, stolen, retrieved and lost. People have always given gifts. It is how you tell their stories that matters.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edmund de Waal", "slug": "edmund-de-waal", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-de-waal" }, "book": { "title": "The Hare With Amber Eyes", "slug": "the-hare-with-amber-eyes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-de-waal/the-hare-with-amber-eyes" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 348, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "stories", "slug": "stories", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stories" }, { "name": "gifts", "slug": "gifts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gifts" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edmund_de_Waal#The_Hare_with_Amber_Eyes:_A_Hidden_Inheritance_(2010)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:56" }, { "id": "fc272d68-fd24-4850-ba0c-61ba597d9364", "slug": "she-told-of-gifts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/patricia-grace/potiki/she-told-of-gifts", "text": "She told of gifts that she'd been given, and how gifts once given cannot be taken away and do not change. Gifts did not change even though there could be a shifting in the self caused by pain. (The Stories, chapter 28 p174)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Patricia Grace", "slug": "patricia-grace", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/patricia-grace" }, "book": { "title": "Potiki", "slug": "potiki", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/patricia-grace/potiki" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "gifts", "slug": "gifts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gifts" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Patricia_Grace#Potiki_(1986)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:49" }, { "id": "9d903a33-66d9-42af-9ee6-7341c5fef745", "slug": "gifts-are-legacies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/patricia-grace/potiki/gifts-are-legacies", "text": "...gifts are legacies, that once given cannot be taken away. They may pass from hand to hand, but once held they are always yours. The gift we were given is with us still. (Roimata, chapter 25 p159)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Patricia Grace", "slug": "patricia-grace", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/patricia-grace" }, "book": { "title": "Potiki", "slug": "potiki", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/patricia-grace/potiki" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "gifts", "slug": "gifts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gifts" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Patricia_Grace#Potiki_(1986)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:49" }, { "id": "b1911f73-eaa3-4a45-a547-406ad508da8f", "slug": "much-of-what", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/much-of-what", "text": "Much of what fills our mouths is taken forcibly from the earth. That form of taking does no honor to the farmer, to the plants, or to the disappearing soil. It’s hard to recognize food that is mummified in plastic, bought and sold, as a gift anymore. Everybody knows you can't buy love. In a garden, food arises from partnership. If I don’t pick rocks and pull weeds, I'm not fulfilling my end of the bargain. I can do these things with my handy opposable thumb and capacity to use tools, to shovel manure. But I can no more create a tomato or embroider a trellis in beans than I can turn lead into gold. That is the plants' responsibility and their gift: animating the inanimate. Now there is a gift.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robin Wall Kimmerer", "slug": "robin-wall-kimmerer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer" }, "book": { "title": "Braiding Sweetgrass", "slug": "braiding-sweetgrass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 126, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "gifts", "slug": "gifts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gifts" }, { "name": "garden", "slug": "garden", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/garden" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robin_Wall_Kimmerer#Braiding_Sweetgrass_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:31" }, { "id": "4241ec41-9e5d-4946-aad7-a39c51cc9230", "slug": "to-carry-a-gift", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/to-carry-a-gift", "text": "To carry a gift is also to carry a responsibility.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robin Wall Kimmerer", "slug": "robin-wall-kimmerer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer" }, "book": { "title": "Braiding Sweetgrass", "slug": "braiding-sweetgrass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 211, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "responsibility", "slug": "responsibility", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility" }, { "name": "gifts", "slug": "gifts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gifts" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robin_Wall_Kimmerer#Braiding_Sweetgrass_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:31" }, { "id": "fbd91ef8-a87c-440f-a40a-c94b6919b511", "slug": "whether-we-jump", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/whether-we-jump", "text": "Whether we jump or are pushed, or the edge of the known world just crumbles at our feet, we fall, spinning into someplace new and unexpected. Despite our fears of falling, the gifts of the world stand by to catch us.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robin Wall Kimmerer", "slug": "robin-wall-kimmerer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer" }, "book": { "title": "Braiding Sweetgrass", "slug": "braiding-sweetgrass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 8, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fear", "slug": "fear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear" }, { "name": "change", "slug": "change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change" }, { "name": "gifts", "slug": "gifts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gifts" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robin_Wall_Kimmerer#Braiding_Sweetgrass_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:30" }, { "id": "9fe7deed-b2e1-44de-b7e7-8dc0e157d16a", "slug": "the-exchange-relationships", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/the-exchange-relationships", "text": "The exchange relationships we choose determine whether we share them as a common gift or sell them as a private commodity. A great deal rests on that choice. For the greater part of human history, and in places in the world today, common resources were the rule. But some invented a different story, a social construct in which everything is a commodity to be bought and sold. The market economy story has spread like wildfire, with uneven results for human well-being and devastation for the natural world. But it is just a story we have told ourselves and we are free to tell another, to reclaim the old one. One of these stories sustains the living systems on which we depend. One of these stories opens the way to living in gratitude and amazement at the richness and generosity of the world. One of these stories asks us to bestow our own gifts in kind, to celebrate our kinship with the world. We can choose. If all the world is a commodity, how poor we grow. When all the world is a gift in motion, how wealthy we become.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robin Wall Kimmerer", "slug": "robin-wall-kimmerer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer" }, "book": { "title": "Braiding Sweetgrass", "slug": "braiding-sweetgrass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 31, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "consumerism", "slug": "consumerism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/consumerism" }, { "name": "stories", "slug": "stories", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stories" }, { "name": "gifts", "slug": "gifts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gifts" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robin_Wall_Kimmerer#Braiding_Sweetgrass_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:30" }, { "id": "9826827c-ec9b-4379-87df-4342e656be41", "slug": "it-was-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/it-was-the", "text": "It was the wild strawberries, beneath dewy leaves on an almost-summer morning, who gave me my sense of the world, my place in it. [...] Even now, after more than fifty Strawberry Moons, finding a patch of wild strawberries still touches me with a sensation of surprise, a feeling of unworthiness and gratitude for the generosity and kindness that comes with an unexpected gift all wrapped in red and green. \"Really? For me? Oh, you shouldn't have.\" After fifty years they still raise the question of how to respond to their generosity. Sometimes it feels like a silly question with a very simple answer: eat them.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robin Wall Kimmerer", "slug": "robin-wall-kimmerer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer" }, "book": { "title": "Braiding Sweetgrass", "slug": "braiding-sweetgrass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 22, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "nature", "slug": "nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature" }, { "name": "gratitude", "slug": "gratitude", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gratitude" }, { "name": "gifts", "slug": "gifts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gifts" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robin_Wall_Kimmerer#Braiding_Sweetgrass_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:30" }, { "id": "755f04e6-3bc2-4017-85a6-8db879e16ddb", "slug": "gifts-from-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/gifts-from-the", "text": "Gifts from the earth or from each other establish a particular relationship, an obligation of sorts to give, to receive, and to reciprocate.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robin Wall Kimmerer", "slug": "robin-wall-kimmerer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer" }, "book": { "title": "Braiding Sweetgrass", "slug": "braiding-sweetgrass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 25, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "gifts", "slug": "gifts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gifts" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robin_Wall_Kimmerer#Braiding_Sweetgrass_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:30" }, { "id": "6d1a55f9-eccb-418c-911a-1f05a9f38ef6", "slug": "a-great-longing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/a-great-longing", "text": "A great longing is upon us, to live again in a world made of gifts. I can scent it coming, like the fragrance of ripening strawberries rising on the breeze.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robin Wall Kimmerer", "slug": "robin-wall-kimmerer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer" }, "book": { "title": "Braiding Sweetgrass", "slug": "braiding-sweetgrass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 32, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "longing", "slug": "longing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/longing" }, { "name": "gifts", "slug": "gifts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gifts" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robin_Wall_Kimmerer#Braiding_Sweetgrass_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:30" }, { "id": "61917c40-bb0b-470c-8c34-dc1d0ed175d2", "slug": "a-gift-comes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/a-gift-comes", "text": "A gift comes to you through no action of your own, free, having moved toward you without your beckoning. It is not a reward; you cannot earn it, or call it to you, or even deserve it. And yet it appears. Your only role is to be open-eyed and present. Gifts exist in a realm of humility and mystery—as with random acts of kindness, we do not know their source.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robin Wall Kimmerer", "slug": "robin-wall-kimmerer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer" }, "book": { "title": "Braiding Sweetgrass", "slug": "braiding-sweetgrass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 23, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humility", "slug": "humility", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humility" }, { "name": "gifts", "slug": "gifts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gifts" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robin_Wall_Kimmerer#Braiding_Sweetgrass_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:30" }, { "id": "585250ed-00e8-45c1-aebf-0a8106f6d277", "slug": "we-are-showered", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/we-are-showered", "text": "We are showered every day with gifts, but they are not meant for us to keep. Their life is in their movement, the inhale and the exhale of our shared breath. Our work and our joy is to pass along the gift and to trust that what we put out into the universe will always come back.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robin Wall Kimmerer", "slug": "robin-wall-kimmerer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer" }, "book": { "title": "Braiding Sweetgrass", "slug": "braiding-sweetgrass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 104, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "generosity", "slug": "generosity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/generosity" }, { "name": "gifts", "slug": "gifts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gifts" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robin_Wall_Kimmerer#Braiding_Sweetgrass_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:30" }, { "id": "19b14d21-41cc-4e11-88e7-a189e9b6b191", "slug": "in-the-gift", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/in-the-gift", "text": "In the gift economy, gifts are not free. The essence of the gift is that it creates a set of relationships. The currency of a gift economy is, at its root, reciprocity.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robin Wall Kimmerer", "slug": "robin-wall-kimmerer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer" }, "book": { "title": "Braiding Sweetgrass", "slug": "braiding-sweetgrass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 28, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "generosity", "slug": "generosity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/generosity" }, { "name": "gifts", "slug": "gifts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gifts" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robin_Wall_Kimmerer#Braiding_Sweetgrass_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:30" }, { "id": "844c4836-cab9-45bc-98ae-fbafe62c0e11", "slug": "we-all-go-through", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/austin-kleon/keep-going/we-all-go-through", "text": "We all go through cycles of disenchantment and re-enchantment with our work. When you feel as though you've lost or you're losing your gift, the quickest way to recover is to step outside the marketplace and make gifts. There's nothing as pure as making something specifically for someone special.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Austin Kleon", "slug": "austin-kleon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/austin-kleon" }, "book": { "title": "Keep Going", "slug": "keep-going", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/austin-kleon/keep-going" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "creativity", "slug": "creativity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/creativity" }, { "name": "gifts", "slug": "gifts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gifts" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Austin_Kleon#Keep_Going_(2019)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:00" }, { "id": "f1596080-2642-4086-a601-a0be8225ad85", "slug": "and-not-until", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cl-moore/jirel-of-joiry/and-not-until", "text": "And not until then did she remember how fatal it is said to be to accept a gift from a demon. Buy, or earn it, but never accept the gift.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "C.L. Moore", "slug": "cl-moore", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cl-moore" }, "book": { "title": "Jirel of Joiry", "slug": "jirel-of-joiry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cl-moore/jirel-of-joiry" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 23, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "evil", "slug": "evil", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil" }, { "name": "gifts", "slug": "gifts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gifts" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/C._L._Moore#Jirel_of_Joiry_(1969)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:07" }, { "id": "1a187967-61a5-4642-bcb8-674fa32b5142", "slug": "i-was-trying", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-donaldson/the-illearth-war/i-was-trying", "text": "I was trying to give her something, make it up to her somehow. But that doesn’t work. When you’ve hurt someone that badly, you can’t go around giving them gifts. That’s arrogant and cruel.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stephen Donaldson", "slug": "stephen-donaldson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-donaldson" }, "book": { "title": "The Illearth War", "slug": "the-illearth-war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-donaldson/the-illearth-war" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 407, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "forgiveness", "slug": "forgiveness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/forgiveness" }, { "name": "gifts", "slug": "gifts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gifts" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_R._Donaldson#The_Illearth_War_(1977)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:04" }, { "id": "a993eb1e-0d8d-442b-bdd5-67ffdffa6b67", "slug": "i-have-discovered", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-search-of-mavin-manyshaped/i-have-discovered", "text": "I have discovered something else, Throsset of Dowes. And that is that men give women jewels when they have absolutely no idea what might please them and are not willing to take time to think about it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "The Search of Mavin Manyshaped", "slug": "the-search-of-mavin-manyshaped", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-search-of-mavin-manyshaped" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 165, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "women", "slug": "women", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women" }, { "name": "men", "slug": "men", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/men" }, { "name": "gifts", "slug": "gifts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gifts" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#The_Search_of_Mavin_Manyshaped_(1985)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:18" }, { "id": "0a6873ba-2bd9-4ff2-a90e-119b70aced0e", "slug": "as-the-idolater", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/as-the-idolater", "text": "As the idolater gives what he loves best to the shrine of the object of his worship, so the lover is not content to see perfection in his mistress, he must be ever trying to add to her adornment. She does not need it for his pleasure, it is he who needs the pleasure of giving, it is a fresh homage to be rendered to her, a fresh pleasure in the joy of beholding her. Everything of beauty seems to find its place only as an accessory to the supreme beauty. It is both touching and amusing to see Emile eager to teach Sophy everything he knows, without asking whether she wants to learn it or whether it is suitable for her.", "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": "falling in love", "slug": "falling-in-love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/falling-in-love" }, { "name": "gifts", "slug": "gifts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gifts" } ], "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": "2026-09-25T22:39:38" }, { "id": "7944a8a6-c8eb-4b3e-aed8-7ce01a421798", "slug": "it-would-be-sweet", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/it-would-be-sweet", "text": "It would be sweet to lie generous towards one we love, if that did not make a bargain of love. I know only one way of gratifying this desire with the woman one loves without embittering love; it is to bestow our all upon her and to live at her expense. It remains to be seen whether there is any woman with regard to whom such conduct would not be unwise.", "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": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "gifts", "slug": "gifts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gifts" } ], "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" }, { "id": "0ba8956a-2ce7-4885-9a47-9458a368a489", "slug": "ingratitude-would-be-rarer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/ingratitude-would-be-rarer", "text": "Ingratitude would be rarer if kindness were less often the investment of a usurer. We love those who have done us a kindness; what a natural feeling! Ingratitude is not to be found in the heart of man, but self-interest is there; those who are ungrateful for benefits received are fewer than those who do a kindness for their own ends. If you sell me your gifts, I will haggle over the price; but if you pretend to give, in order to sell later on at your own price, you are guilty of fraud; it is the free gift which is beyond price. The heart is a law to itself; if you try to bind it, you lose it; give it its liberty, and you make it your own.", "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": "kindness", "slug": "kindness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/kindness" }, { "name": "gifts", "slug": "gifts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gifts" } ], "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" } ] }