I perceive God everywhere in His works. I sense Him in me; I see Him all around me. - Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Yet, on the whole, I think the Greeks were very wise in this matter of physical training. Young girls frequently appeared in public, not with the boys, but in groups apart. There was scarcely a festival, a sacrifice, or a procession without its bands of maidens, the daughters of the chief citizens. Crowned with flowers, chanting hymns, forming the chorus of the dance, bearing baskets, vases, offerings, they presented a charming spectacle to the depraved senses of the Greeks, a spectacle well fitted to efface the evil effects of their unseemly gymnastics.

When the Greek women married, they disappeared from public life; within the four walls of their home they devoted themselves to the care of their household and family. This is the mode of life prescribed for women alike by nature and reason. These women gave birth to the healthiest, strongest, and best proportioned men who ever lived, and except in certain islands of ill repute, no women in the whole world, not even the Roman matrons, were ever at once so wise and so charming, so beautiful and so virtuous, as the women of ancient Greece.

To be driven by our appetites alone is slavery, while to obey a law that we have imposed on ourselves is freedom.

Bize deniyor ki doğa alışkanlıktan başka bir şey değildir. Bu ne anlama geliyor? Yalnızca zorla edinilen ve doğayı hiçbir zaman ortadan kaldırmayan alışkanlıklar yok mudur? Örneğin, dikine büyümesi engellenen bitkilerin alışkanlığı böyle değil midir? Özgür bırakılan bitki, kendisine zorla benimsetilen eğilimi korur; ama özsu yine de ilk yönünü değiştirmemiştir ve bitki büyümeye devam ederse, uzaması yeniden dikine olur. İnsanların eğilimleri de böyledir. İnsan aynı durumda kaldıkça, alışkanlıktan ileri gelen ve bizim için en az doğal olan eğilimleri koruyabilir; ama durum değişir değişmez alışkanlık durur ve doğal olan geri gelir. Eğitim kuşkusuz yalnızca bir alışkanlıktır.