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Your Quotes for 28 February 2006 - Montaigne

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne was born on this day in 1533 and soon embarked on one of the strangest courses of education imaginable. Instead of allowing the boy to become accustomed to great wealth on the family estate, he was sent to live with a peasant family for three years. His father wanted Michel to learn Latin as his first language and hired a German tutor (who spoke no French) to teach him, then banned the use of French in the Chateau when Michel was within hearing. To make sure that he learned to delight in music, a musician was hired to constantly attend the boy and play whenever his interest flagged. Montaigne was an influential mediator between Roman Catholic and Protestant partisans (he and his father were Catholic, his mother was Jewish but a practicing Protestant). The database is rife with his quotes, he wrote extensively and is generally credited with inventing the personal essay. I guess that makes him the great great grandfather of today's blogs.

It's not victory if it doesn't end the war.

Nothing is so firmly believed as that which is least known.

A wise man sees as much as he ought, not as much as he can.

Anyone who does not feel sufficiently strong in memory should not meddle with lying.

I speak the truth not so much as I would, but as much as I dare, and I dare a little more as I grow older.

I care not so much what I am in the opinion of others, as what I am in my own. I would be rich of myself and not by borrowing.

Even on the most exalted throne in the world we are only sitting on our own bottom.
     - All from Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, 1533 - 1592

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