Make your educational laws strict and your criminal ones can be gentle; but if you leave youth its liberty you will have to dig dungeons for ages.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Montaigne suggests that strict education prevents future crime, whereas letting youth run wild leads to a society full of prisons.
- In plain terms
- Firm rules for young people stop crime later in life.
- What can you take from it?
- Enforce strict educational discipline to avoid future punishment.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Should schools be strict or lenient?
- Does freedom lead to chaos?
Another view
Strict education can sometimes stifle creativity and freedom.
More from Michel de Montaigne
Love to his soul gave eyes; he knew things are not as they seem. The dream is his real life; the world around him is the dream.
Permalink to quote #98 Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside equally desperate to get out.
Permalink to quote #100 Marriage, a market which has nothing free but the entrance.
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