be it permitted me to cite an example of which there ought to have existed better records, and one which will be ever near to my heart. i cannot recall to mind, without the sweetest emotions, the memory of that virtuous citizen, to whom i owe my being, and by whom i was often instructed, in my infancy, in the respect which is due to you. i see him still, living by the work of his hands, and feeding his soul on the sublimest truths...
at his side stands his dear son, receiving, alas with too little profit, the tender instructions of the best of fathers. but, if the follies of youth made me for a while forget his wise lessons, i have at length the happiness to be conscious that, whatever propensity one may have to vice, it is not easy for an education, with which love has mingled, to be entirely thrown away.
-jean jacques rousseau on the origin of inequality
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