Emile

by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

“Since our young gentleman,” says Locke, “is about to marry, it is time to leave him with his mistress.

perfect man and a perfect woman should no more be alike in mind than in face, and perfection admits of neither less nor more.

The man should be strong and active; the woman should be weak and passive;

Interesting for a feminist icon

woman is specially made for man’s delight.

If woman is made to please and to be in subjection to man, she ought to make herself pleasing in his eyes and not provoke him to

Women do wrong to complain of the inequality of man-made laws; this inequality is not of man’s making, or at any rate it is not the result of mere prejudice, but of reason.

Women, you say, are not always bearing children. Granted; yet that is their proper business.

Is it any the less a woman’s business to be a mother? And do not the general laws of nature and morality make provision for this state of things?

what would be faults in you are virtues in them;

A woman’s honour does not depend on her conduct alone, but on her reputation, and no woman who permits herself to be considered vile is really virtuous. A man has no one but himself to consider, and so long as he does right he may defy public opinion;