After reading the book Emile, I felt that Rousseau was not simply writing about education. What he wrote was clearly philosophy, and it was clearly his Walden Pond.

As I experience more and more things, I increasingly agree with the saying that maturity is a process of constantly understanding oneself. As people live, they will become more like themselves and become more and more identified with their true selves. And only in this way can you be happy.

This example could not be more clear in Rousseau's "Emile": Some plants that grow vertically are forced to grow in a curved way under the action of external forces, but once this restraint is released, , perhaps they will still maintain their original twisted growth direction, but their inner juices will not be interfered with in any way. Each time they undergo new development, they will become a little more vertical.

The same is true for people. When a person stays in the same environment for a long time, he will form a habit. Although it is not innate, this habit will still become stronger and stronger. However, as soon as the situation changes, this habit will slowly disappear and people will slowly return to their original state. To put it bluntly, education is a habit, and only habits that are consistent with nature can be called "natural."

"Emile" is about education, but it is also about life.

I originally thought that it was a philosophical principle that people should live like themselves. It turns out that it is a physical phenomenon of nature.

It’s no wonder that Confucius exclaimed: “Heaven has nothing to say! Heaven has nothing to say!” There is no need to say anything about nature, but people who slowly begin to understand life begin to get in touch with nature, love nature, praise nature, and revere nature. .

As the saying goes: Nine times out of ten things in life will be unsatisfactory. In our lives, there is always more pain than happiness. Where does the pain come from? Pain comes from the desire to get rid of pain, and happiness comes from the desire to obtain happiness.

Desire means lack, and lack causes suffering.

I sometimes think that the tortoise will be ridiculed for its longevity, and that it lives a long life because of its inaction. People must not live like a tortoise. In fact, who has the right to laugh at a turtle? Even if you want to live like a turtle, you can't do it. The turtle can ignore the ridicule of others and live its own life leisurely. Your praise or disdain is like a gust of wind passing by. Few people can match this calmness. It's because you really don't care, rather than holding it in your heart.

He lives a long life because his abilities always outweigh his desires. And how difficult it is for a person to have enough ability to satisfy his desires in his lifetime.

Once a person has no desire, his abilities will not be fully utilized. If his abilities are not fully utilized, people will feel empty.

Once a person's ability increases, his desires will expand with the increase in ability, which can only lead to deeper pain.

Therefore, people need to learn a lot, plus many factors such as talent and opportunities, in order to achieve a balance between desires and abilities, and use the abilities they have to satisfy their desires. While abilities are fully utilized, desires are also satisfied, so that people can maintain inner peace and devote themselves to an orderly life. And turtles are born to be able to do it. And how many of us have never laughed at a turtle?

Therefore, we must face ourselves, neither worse nor better than others. That is why Confucius said from the bottom of his heart: "When three people walk together, there must be my teacher."

I like these words in "Emile" very much:

Sun Tzu's Art of War said: "You can win with more, but you can't win with less. What's more, nothing can count?"

I think the two are not contradictory, because they are not talking about the same thing at all, so how can they be contradictory.

This is telling us that self-confidence is obviously an operable thing, so why do some people want to attribute it to nature?

This is taking responsibility for life. Don’t try to control other people’s lives. This is simply the greatest kindness to others.

Support the point of view of kindness. As for viciousness, maybe it is a translation problem. I feel that Rousseau would not express it so sharply.

Therefore, the sympathy that others can give you is always limited, so you don’t have to ask too much of others. Your ability is always limited.

Love seems to be loving others, but it is actually self-love.