From now on, Montaigne would live for himself rather than for duty.
--
Sarah Bakewell, describing Montaigne’s retirement at age 38, How to Live (2010), p. 24Michel de Montaigne
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Michel de Montaigne, 'Of Books', 1580, in The Complete Essays of Montaigne, ed. D. Frame (1958)
Cicero
The most offensive egotist is he that fears to say "I" and "me." "It will probably rain "—that is dogmatic. "I think it will rain"—that is natural and modest. Montaigne is the most delightful of essayists because so great is his humility that he does not think it important that we see not Montaigne. He so forgets himself that he employs no artifice to make us forget him.
Michel de Montaigne
The most offensive egotist is he that fears to say "I" and "me." "It will probably rain "—that is dogmatic. "I think it will rain"—that is natural and modest. Montaigne is the most delightful of essayists because so great is his humility that he does not think it important that we see not Montaigne. He so forgets himself that he employs no artifice to make us forget him.
Ambrose Bierce
That the threat is now intense is not a reason to abandon our quest for knowledge. It is a reason to hold it more tightly, in spite of the need for action to preserve our freedom, in spite of the distractions of living in turmoil, that it may not be lost or brushed aside by the demands of the hour. We would not neglect our duty to our country and our fellows to strive mightily to preserve our ways and our lives. There is an added duty, not inconsistent, not less. It is the duty to so live that there may be a reason for living, beyond the mere mechanisms of life. It is the duty to carry on, under stress, the search for understanding.
Vannevar Bush
Europeans had often thought that somewhere in the world must dwell a noble race, remnants of that golden age before man became corrupted by civilization. As reports of Indians filtered back to Europe, a distinguished French philosopher of the late sixteenth century, Michelle de Montaigne ...concluded that the Noble Savage has at last been found, for the Indian "...very words that import a lie, falsehood, treason, covetousness, envy, detraction, were not heard among them." Montaigne presented the idealized notion about the aborigines ...that foreshadowed the Noble Savage of Jean Jacques Rousseau.
Peter Farb
Montaigne, Michel de
Montanelli, Indro
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