From "Emile"


A few bullets:

  • Definitions would be all very well if we did not use words in the making of them.
  • I have seen those little prodigies who are supposed to speak half a dozen languages. I have heard them speak first in German, then in Latin, French, or Italian; true, they used half a dozen vocabularies, but they always spoke in German. In a word, you may give children as many synonyms as you like; it is not their language but their words that you change; they will never have but one language.
  • You think you are teaching him what the world is like; he is only learning the map; he is taught the names of towns, countries, rivers, which have no existence for him except on the paper before him.
  • You will say I too am a dreamer; I admit it, but I do what the others fail to do, I give my dreams as dreams, and leave the reader to discover whether there is anything in them which may prove useful to those who are awake.  

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