My Blog

Tag: writing

  • I have chosen to say what I know how to say

    “I have chosen to say what I know how to say, accommodating the matter to my power. If I took a subject that would lead me along, I might not be able to measure up to it; with my freedom being so very free, I might publish judgements which, even according to my own opinion…

  • Speech belongs half to the speaker

    “Speech belongs half to the speaker, half to the listener. The latter must prepare to receive it according to the motion it takes. As among tennis players, the receiver moves and makes ready according to the motion of the striker and the nature of the stroke.” III.13 “Of experience” (p.1016)

  • The most learned man alive

      “At least I have one thing according to the rules: that no man ever treated a subject he knew and understood better than I do the subject I have undertaken; and that in this I am the most learned man alive. Secondly, that no man ever penetrated more deeply into his material, or plucked…

  • I portray passing

    “I cannot keep my subject still. It goes along befuddled and staggering, with a natural drunkenness. I take it in this condition, just as it is at the moment I give my attention to it. I do not portray being: I portray passing.”   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)

  • Bundle of disparate pieces

    “This bundle of so many disparate pieces is being composed in this manner: I set my hand to it only when pressed by too unnerving an idleness, and nowhere but at home.” II.31 Of the resemblance of children to fathers (p.696)

  • There is profit in change

    “That is what Seneca says, which has carried me away from my subject; but there is profit in change.” II.25 “Not to counterfeit being sick” (p. 634)   (I think it’s interesting that here we see an example of Montaigne acknowledging his digression, yet also commenting on the digression itself as if examining his own…

  • A book consubstantial with its author

    I have no more made my book than my book has made me — a book consubstantial with its author […] For those who go over themselves only in their minds and occasionally in speech do not penetrate to essentials in their examination as does a man who makes his study, his work, and his…

  • What I chiefly portray is my cogitations

    “What I chiefly portray is my cogitations, a shapeless subject that does not lend itself to expression in actions. It is all I can do to couch my thoughts in this airy medium of words. … It is not my deeds that I write down; it is myself, it is my essence.” II.6 “Of practice”…