Essays — Michel de Montaigne

Essays

Michel de Montaigne · License: Public domain · Source

• And those who take this sentence in a contrary sense interpret it amiss: CHAPTER XI · ¶374
• "Ista sic reciprocantur, ut et si divinatio sit, dii sint; et si dii lint, sit divinatio." CHAPTER XI · ¶375
• "Nam istis, qui linguam avium intelligunt, Plusque ex alieno jecore sapiunt, quam ex suo, Magis audiendum, quam auscultandum, censeo." CHAPTER XI · ¶378
• I see some who are mightily given to study and comment upon their almanacs, and produce them to us as an authority when anything has fallen out pat; and, for that matter, it is hardly possible but that these alleged authorities sometimes stumble upon a truth amongst an infinite number of lies. CHAPTER XI · ¶381
• "Quis est enim, qui totum diem jaculans non aliquando collineet?" CHAPTER XI · ¶382
• "Mens immota manet; lachrymae volvuntur inanes." CHAPTER XII · ¶393
• The Peripatetic sage does not exempt himself totally from perturbations of mind, but he moderates them. CHAPTER XII · ¶395
• Edited by William Carew Hazlitt CHAPTER XII · ¶400
• THAT MEN ARE JUSTLY PUNISHED FOR BEING OBSTINATE IN THE DEFENCE OF A FORT THAT IS NOT IN REASON TO BE DEFENDED CHAPTER XIV · ¶409
• So above all both of ransom and mercy a man should take heed, if he can, of falling into the hands of a judge who is an enemy and victorious. CHAPTER XIV · ¶413
• "Suffundere malis homims sanguinem, quam effundere." CHAPTER XV · ¶417
• I observe in my travels this custom, ever to learn something from the information of those with whom I confer (which is the best school of all others), and to put my company upon those subjects they are the best able to speak of:-- CHAPTER XVI · ¶422
• "Basti al nocchiero ragionar de' venti, Al bifolco dei tori; et le sue piaghe Conti'l guerrier; conti'l pastor gli armenti." CHAPTER XVI · ¶423
• "Optat ephippia bos piger, optat arare caballus." CHAPTER XVI · ¶426
• By this course a man shall never improve himself, nor arrive at any perfection in anything. He must, therefore, make it his business always to put the architect, the painter, the statuary, every mechanic artisan, upon discourse of their own capacities. CHAPTER XVI · ¶428
• "Obstupui, steteruntque comae et vox faucibus haesit." CHAPTER XVII · ¶434
• "Adeo pavor etiam auxilia formidat" CHAPTER XVII · ¶437
• "Tum pavor sapientiam omnem mihiex animo expectorat." CHAPTER XVII · ¶441
• "Scilicet ultima semper Exspectanda dies homini est; dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet." CHAPTER XVIII · ¶447
• "Usque adeo res humanas vis abdita quaedam Obterit, et pulchros fasces, saevasque secures Proculcare, ac ludibrio sibi habere videtur." CHAPTER XVIII · ¶450
• And it should seem, also, that Fortune sometimes lies in wait to surprise the last hour of our lives, to show the power she has, in a moment, to overthrow what she was so many years in building, making us cry out with Laberius: CHAPTER XVIII · ¶452
• "Nimirum hac die Una plus vixi mihi, quam vivendum fuit." CHAPTER XVIII · ¶453
• "Nam vera; voces turn demum pectore ab imo Ejiciuntur; et eripitur persona, manet res." CHAPTER XVIII · ¶456
• "Transcurramus solertissimas nugas" CHAPTER XIX · ¶462
• --there is more in them of opposition and obstinacy than is consistent with so sacred a profession; but whatsoever personage a man takes upon himself to perform, he ever mixes his own part with it. CHAPTER XIX · ¶464
• "Omnes eodem cogimur; omnium Versatur urna serius ocius Sors exitura, et nos in aeternum Exilium impositura cymbae." CHAPTER XIX · ¶467
• and, consequently, if it frights us, 'tis a perpetual torment, for which there is no sort of consolation. There is no way by which it may not reach us. We may continually turn our heads this way and that, as in a suspected country: CHAPTER XIX · ¶469
• "Quae, quasi saxum Tantalo, semper impendet." CHAPTER XIX · ¶470
• Our courts of justice often send back condemned criminals to be executed upon the place where the crime was committed; but, carry them to fine houses by the way, prepare for them the best entertainment you can-- CHAPTER XIX · ¶472
• "Non Siculae dapes Dulcem elaborabunt saporem: Non avium cyatheaceae cantus Somnum reducent." CHAPTER XIX · ¶473
• Do you think they can relish it? and that the fatal end of their journey being continually before their eyes, would not alter and deprave their palate from tasting these regalios? CHAPTER XIX · ¶475
• "Audit iter, numeratque dies, spatioque viarum Metitur vitam; torquetur peste futura." CHAPTER XIX · ¶476
• The end of our race is death; 'tis the necessary object of our aim, which, if it fright us, how is it possible to advance a step without a fit of ague? The remedy the vulgar use is not to think on't; but from what brutish stupidity can they derive so gross a blindness? They must bridle the ass by the tail: CHAPTER XIX · ¶478
• "Qui capite ipse suo instituit vestigia retro," CHAPTER XIX · ¶479
• "Quid quisque, vitet, nunquam homini satis Cautum est in horas." CHAPTER XIX · ¶483
• "Praetulerim . . . delirus inersque videri, Dum mea delectent mala me, vel denique fallant, Quam sapere, et ringi." CHAPTER XIX · ¶487
• "Nempe et fugacem persequitur virum, Nec parcit imbellis juventae Poplitibus timidoque tergo." CHAPTER XIX · ¶490
• And seeing that no temper of arms is of proof to secure us:-- CHAPTER XIX · ¶492
• "Ille licet ferro cautus, se condat et aere, Mors tamen inclusum protrahet inde caput" CHAPTER XIX · ¶493

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