Happiness is a good bank account, a good cook, and a good digestion. - Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Îndată ce aveam cozonăcelul la îndemână, închis în camera mea, îmi scoteam sticla din fundul vreunui dulap, şi ce chefuri trăgeam de unul singur, în timp ce citeam câteva pagini de roman! Căci a citi în timp ce mănânc a fost totdeauna un nărav al meu, din lipsă de a fi cu cineva. În felul acesta, înlocuiesc compania pe care n-o am. Înghit, rând pe rând, o pagină şi o îmbucătură: e ca şi cum cartea s-ar ospăta împreună cu mine.

In proportion as the ideas and sentiments succeed one another and as the mind and heart are trained, the human race continues to be tamed, relationships spread, and bonds tightened. People grew accustomed to gather in front of their huts or around a large tree; song and dance, true children of love and leisure, became the amusement or rather the occupation of idle men and women who had flocked together. Each one began to look at the others and to want to be looked at himself, and public esteem had a value. The one who sang or danced the best, the handsomest, the strongest, the most adroit, or the most eloquent became the most highly regarded. And this was the first step towards inequality and, at the same time, toward vice. From these first preferences were born vanity and contempt on the one hand, and shame and envy on the other. And the fermentation caused by these new leavens eventually produced compounds fatal to happiness and innocence.

Respetad a la infancia y no os deis prisa en juzgarla ni para el bien ni para el mal.