Émile; Or, Concerning Education; Extracts
1762
Émile; Or, Concerning Education; Extracts
1762
Translated by Eleanor Worthington
In 1762, a philosopher on the run from authorities published a radical treatise disguised as a novel about raising a single child from birth to adulthood. That book would transform how Western civilization thinks about childhood, learning, and human freedom. Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Émile argues that children are not miniature adults to be stuffed with Latin grammar and forced into intellectual corsets, but beings with their own logic, needs, and timetable of development. Through the story of a fictional pupil and his tutor, Rousseau demonstrates that true education must follow nature - not impose artificial burdens before a child is ready to bear them. The result is part philosophical manifesto, part utopian experiment, a book that scandalized Europe and influenced every subsequent debate about how we raise the young. Some of Rousseau's conclusions remain controversial; all remain unavoidable. If you want to understand where modern ideas about childhood came from - and whether they've actually delivered on their promises - you must encounter this strange, passionate, often contradictory masterpiece.
Editions
X-Ray
“I would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices.””
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“To live is not to breathe but to act. It is to make use of our organs, our senses, our faculties, of all the parts of ourselves which give us the sentiment of our existence. The man who has lived the most is not he who has counted the most years but he who has most felt life.””
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“Once you teach people to say what they do not understand, it is easy enough to get them to say anything you like.””
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“The only moral lesson which is suited for a child--the most important lesson for every time of life--is this: 'Never hurt anybody.””
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“All wickedness comes from weakness. The child is wicked only because he is weak. Make him strong; he will be good. He who could do everything would never do harm.””
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“Nature made me happy and good, and if I am otherwise, it is society's fault.””
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“إن ضعف الإنسان هو الذي يجعله إجتماعياً.وعناصر الشقاء المشتركة بيننا هي التي تدفع قلوبنا الى الإنسانية. فما كنا لنحس أننا مدينون للإنسانية بشيء لو لم نكن بشراً””
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“The real world has its limits; the imaginary world is infinite. Unable to enlarge the one, let us restrict the other, for it is from the difference between the two alone that are born all the pains which make us truly unhappy.””
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“A child who passes through many hands in turn, can never be well brought up. At every change he makes a secret comparison, which continually tends to lessen his respect for those who control him, and with it their authority over him. If once he thinks there are grown-up people with no more sense than children the authority of age is destroyed and his education is ruined.””
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau
