Singur, n-am cunoscut niciodată plictiseala, chiar atunci când nu făceam nimic: imaginația mea, umplând toate golurile, era ea singură de ajuns spre … - Jean-Jacques Rousseau

To this motive which encourages me is added another which made up my mind: after I have upheld, according to my natural intelligence, the side of truth, no matter what success I have, there is a prize which I cannot fail to win. I will find it in the depths of my heart.

There is, I am sensible, an age at which every individual of you would choose to stop; and you will look out for the age at which, had you your wish, your species had stopped. Uneasy at your present condition for reasons which threaten your unhappy posterity with still greater uneasiness, you will perhaps wish it were in your power to go back; and this sentiment ought to be considered, as the panegyric of your first parents, the condemnation of you contemporaries, and a source of terror to all those who may have the misfortune of succeeding you.

En vérité, je ne songeais guère à faire ni comme les autres ni autrement qu'eux. Je désirais sincèrement de faire ce qui était bien.