Michel de Montaigne
“My judgment is quite content merely to protect itself from confusion and unruliness: as for its weakness, it willingly acknowledges it and avows it.”
Michel de Montaigne, On Solitude
“Ambition, covetousness, irresolution, fear, and desires do not abandon us just because we have changed our landscape.”
Michel de Montaigne, On Solitude
“I think it less risky to write about the past than the present, since the author has only to account for borrowed truth.”
Michel de Montaigne, On Solitude
“A man of good morals may hold false opinions: a wicked man can preach the truth-yes, even truths he does not believe.”
Michel de Montaigne, On Solitude
“No passion disturbs the soundness of our judgment as anger does.”
Michel de Montaigne, On Solitude
Ted Hughes on Growing Up and Still Being A Child
“That was a most curious and interesting remark you made about feeling, occasionally, very childish, in certain situations. Nicholas, don’t you know about people this first and most crucial fact: every single one is, and is painfully every moment aware of it, still a child.”
Ted Hughes, in a letter to his 24 year old son
“If I am not for myself, who is for me? If I am for myself alone, what am I? If not now, when?”
“It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.”
Epictetus
“Either you must loathe the wicked or imitate them.”
Michel de Montaigne from On Solitude