Lingușirea, sau mai bine zis îngăduința, nu e totdeauna un păcat, ea e de cele mai multe ori o virtute, îndeosebi la tineri. Bunătatea cu care un om … - Jean-Jacques Rousseau

الديمقراطية الصحيحة لم توجد قط، ولن توجد أبدًا، إذ مما يعارض طبيعة الأشياء أن تحكم الأغلبية الأقلية

He who would preserve the supremacy of natural feelings in social life knows not what he asks. Ever at war with himself, hesitating between his wishes and his duties, he will be neither a man nor a citizen. He will be of no use to himself nor to others. He will be a man of our day, a Frenchman, an Englishman, one of the great middle class. To be something, to be himself, and always at one with himself, a man must act as he speaks, must know what course he ought to take, and must follow that course with vigour and persistence. When I meet this miracle it will be time enough to decide whether he is a man or a citizen, or how he contrives to be both. Two conflicting types of educational systems spring from these conflicting aims. One is public and common to many, the other private and domestic.

De manera que, poniéndome en el lugar del oráculo y preguntándome qué es lo que preferiría ser, lo que soy yo o lo que son ellos, saber lo que ellos han aprendido o saber que no sé nada, me he respondido a mí mismo y al Dios: Quiero seguir siendo lo que soy.