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Quips from Montaigne

Pantagruel September 03, 2021 at 22:18 1800 views 6 comments
I thought I'd share some quotable quips as I encounter them in the Essays of (from the 2003 printing of M.A. Screech's 1987 translation):

Nothing is really in our power but our will.... P. 28

where I seek myself I cannot find myself; I discover myself more by accident, than by inquiring into my judgement. p. 40

a powerful imagination generates the event. p. 109

in the study I am making of our manners and our motives, fabulous testimonies - provided they remain possible - can do service as well as true ones. p. 119

Only fools have made up their minds and are certain. p. 170

I cannot believe...that reason cannot produce the same effects as habit....
Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays, p. 273

"Does knowing mean nothing to you, unless somebody else knows that you know it?"
Persius - cited p. 274

Comments (6)

180 Proof September 04, 2021 at 14:09 #589177
"He who fears he will suffer, already suffers from his fear." ~Michel de Montaigne
Pantagruel September 08, 2021 at 18:59 #590776
Reply to 180 Proof :up:

...there is no more reliable witness than each man is to himself. p. 711

Since men are not intelligent enough to be adequately paid in good coin let counterfeit coin be used as well. p. 715
Pantagruel September 15, 2021 at 10:55 #595085
I am loath even to have thoughts which I cannot publish. p. 953

Now there's a standard
Pantagruel September 22, 2021 at 16:06 #598886
He who does not live at all for others hardly lives at all for himself p. 1138
Pantagruel September 24, 2021 at 17:54 #599958
...things are sensed through the understanding, understood through the senses. p. 1257
Pantagruel September 24, 2021 at 17:58 #599959
Reply to 180 Proof Just crossed paths with this one. To me, it seems more forceful if you drop the final, "from his fear": he who fears suffering already suffers.... It kind of like, when something is translated from one language to another, the translator can take liberties in search of the best meaning. Well, even speaking and hearing can be viewed as a kind of translation (of separate viewpoints). In fact, I just passed another comment where Montaigne says that words belong half to the speaker and half to the listener....

:)