Essays — Michel de Montaigne

Essays

Michel de Montaigne · License: Public domain · Source

• "Si l'espine rion picque quand nai, A pene que picque jamai," CHAPTER LVII · ¶1754
• "Ubi jam validis quassatum est viribus aevi Corpus, et obtusis ceciderunt viribus artus, Claudicat ingenium, delirat linguaque, mensque." CHAPTER LVII · ¶1758
• Edited by William Carew Hazlitt CHAPTER LVII · ¶1766
• I. Of the inconstancy of our actions. II. Of drunkenness. III. A custom of the Isle of Cea. IV. To-morrow's a new day. V. Of conscience. VI. Use makes perfect. CHAPTER LVII · ¶1769
• "Malum consilium est, quod mutari non potest." CHAPTER I · ¶1773
• "Quod petit, spernit; repetit, quod nuper omisit; AEstuat, et vitae disconvenit ordine toto." CHAPTER I · ¶1776
• "Ducimur, ut nervis alienis mobile lignum." CHAPTER I · ¶1779
• We do not go, we are driven; like things that float, now leisurely, then with violence, according to the gentleness or rapidity of the current: CHAPTER I · ¶1781
• "Nonne videmus, Quid sibi quisque velit, nescire, et quaerere semper Commutare locum, quasi onus deponere possit?" CHAPTER I · ¶1782
• Every day a new whimsy, and our humours keep motion with the time. CHAPTER I · ¶1784
• "Tales sunt hominum mentes, quali pater ipse Juppiter auctificas lustravit lumine terras." CHAPTER I · ¶1785
• "Verbis, quae timido quoque possent addere mentem" CHAPTER I · ¶1789
• "Pray employ," answered he, "some miserable plundered soldier in that affair": CHAPTER I · ¶1791
• "Quantumvis rusticus, ibit, Ibit eo, quo vis, qui zonam perdidit, inquit;" CHAPTER I · ¶1792
• Many of the Greeks, says Cicero,--[Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., ii. 27.]-- cannot endure the sight of an enemy, and yet are courageous in sickness; the Cimbrians and Celtiberians quite contrary; CHAPTER I · ¶1797
• "Nihil enim potest esse aequabile, quod non a certa ratione proficiscatur." CHAPTER I · ¶1798
• "Cui vivendi via considerata atque provisa est," CHAPTER I · ¶1801
• if the variety of occurrences makes him alter his pace (his path, I mean, for the pace may be faster or slower) let him go; such an one runs before the wind, "Avau le dent," as the motto of our Talebot has it. CHAPTER I · ¶1803
• "Magnam rem puta, unum hominem agere." CHAPTER I · ¶1806
• "Hac duce, custodes furtim transgressa jacentes, Ad juvenem tenebris sola puella venit:" CHAPTER I · ¶1809
• 'tis not all the understanding has to do, simply to judge us by our outward actions; it must penetrate the very soul, and there discover by what springs the motion is guided. But that being a high and hazardous undertaking, I could wish that fewer would attempt it. CHAPTER I · ¶1811
• The world is nothing but variety and disemblance, vices are all alike, as they are vices, and peradventure the Stoics understand them so; but although they are equally vices, yet they are not all equal vices; and he who has transgressed the ordinary bounds a hundred paces: CHAPTER II · ¶1813
• "Quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum," CHAPTER II · ¶1814
• should not be in a worse condition than he that has advanced but ten, is not to be believed; or that sacrilege is not worse than stealing a cabbage: CHAPTER II · ¶1816
• "Nec vincet ratio hoc, tantumdem ut peccet, idemque, Qui teneros caules alieni fregerit horti, Et qui nocturnus divum sacra legerit." CHAPTER II · ¶1817
• "Cum vini vis penetravit . . . Consequitur gravitas membrorum, praepediuntur Crura vacillanti, tardescit lingua, madet mens, Nant oculi; clamor, singultus, jurgia, gliscunt." CHAPTER II · ¶1820
• The worst state of man is that wherein he loses the knowledge and government of himself. And 'tis said amongst other things upon this subject, that, as the must fermenting in a vessel, works up to the top whatever it has in the bottom, so wine, in those who have drunk beyond measure, vents the most inward secrets: CHAPTER II · ¶1822
• "Tu sapientum Curas et arcanum jocoso Consilium retegis Lyaeo." CHAPTER II · ¶1823
• "Hesterno inflatum venas ut semper, Lyaeo." CHAPTER II · ¶1827
• And the design of killing Caesar was as safely communicated to Cimber, though he would often be drunk, as to Cassius, who drank nothing but water. CHAPTER II · ¶1829
• We see our Germans, when drunk as the devil, know their post, remember the word, and keep to their ranks: CHAPTER II · ¶1831
• "Nec facilis victoria de madidis, et Blaesis, atque mero titubantibus." CHAPTER II · ¶1832
• It is true that antiquity has not much decried this vice; the writings even of several philosophers speak very tenderly of it, and even amongst the Stoics there are some who advise folks to give themselves sometimes the liberty to drink, nay, to drunkenness, to refresh the soul: CHAPTER II · ¶1835
• "Hoc quoque virtutum quondam certamine, magnum Socratem palmam promeruisse ferunt." CHAPTER II · ¶1836
• That censor and reprover of others, Cato, was reproached that he was a hard drinker: CHAPTER II · ¶1838
• "Narratur et prisci Catonis Saepe mero caluisse virtus." CHAPTER II · ¶1839
• 'Tis said that the philosopher Stilpo, when oppressed with age, purposely hastened his end by drinking pure wine. The same thing, but not designed by him, despatched also the philosopher Arcesilaus. CHAPTER II · ¶1848
• But 'tis an old and pleasant question, whether the soul of a wise man can be overcome by the strength of wine? CHAPTER II · ¶1849
• "Si munitae adhibet vim sapientiae." CHAPTER II · ¶1850
• "Sudores itaque, et pallorem exsistere toto Corpore, et infringi linguam, vocemque aboriri, Caligare oculos, sonere aures, succidere artus, Demque concidere, ex animi terrore, videmus." CHAPTER II · ¶1852

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