My Blog

Tag: self-deprecation

  • Nothing costs me dear

    Nothing costs me dear except care and trouble, and I seek only to grow indifferent and relaxed. III. 9 “Of vanity” (p. 884).

  • Man’s estate

    “I set forth a humble and inglorious life; that does not matter. You can tie up all moral philosophy with a common and private life just as well as with a life of richer stuff. Each man bears the entire form of man’s estate.” III.2 “Of repentance” (p. 740)

  • On making essays

    “If my mind could gain a firm footing, I would not make essays, I would make decisions” III.2 “Of repentance” (p. 740)

  • I cannot keep my subject still

    “I cannot keep my subject still. It goes along befuddled and staggering, with a natural drunkenness . . . If my mind could gain a firm footing, I would not make essays, I would make decisions[.]” III.2 “Of Repentance” (p. 740)

  • Born in a very depraved time

    “Misfortune has its uses. It is good to be born in a very depraved time, for by comparison with others, you are considered virtuous for a cheap price. Anyone who is only a parricide and sacrilegious in our days is a good and honorable man.” II.17 “Of presumption” (pp. 595)

  • Thousands of mind that trample us underfoot

    “It anyone gets intoxicated with his knowledge when he looks beneath him, let him turn his eyes upward toward past ages, and he will lower his horns, finding there so many thousands of minds that trample him underfoot. … No particular quality will make a man proud who balances it against the many weaknesses and…

  • Groping, staggering, stumbling, and blundering

    “As for the natural faculties that are in me, of which this book is the essay, I feel them bending under the load. My conceptions and my judgment move only by groping, staggering, stumbling, and blundering, and when I have gone ahead as far as I can, still I am not at all satisfied: I…