Montaigne

“It is my opinion that you should lend yourself to others and give yourself only to yourself.”

“Books are my kingdom. And here I seek to reign as absolute lord.”

“Montaigne is the sworn enemy of all responsibility. He strives to dodge decisions. Solitary sage in a time of mass fanaticism, he seeks seclusion and flight.”

“An intellect that does not have a fixed target is as good as lost. Whoever wants to be everywhere is nowhere. No wind blows for him who has no harbour.”

“Consciously or unconsciously, our education renders us slaves to morals, religion and a perceived vision of the world; our breath is the air of the epoch in which we live.”

“La plus grande chose du monde c’est de savoir être à soi.”

“He desires only to preserve a few memories, assemble a few thoughts, to dream more than live and patiently await death, calmly preparing for it.”

“Books are, I find, the best provisions a man can take with him on life’s journey.”

“He forgets the books he has read, has no memory for dates and misplaces the momentous events in his life. Like a river, all flows over him, leaving nothing behind: no deep conviction, no solid opinion, nothing fixed, nothing stable.”

“To guard oneself from presumption.”

“To free oneself of ambitions and all forms of avarice: “Thirst for glory is the most futile of all, the most valueless and bogus currency known to man.”

“It is true: Montaigne achieved little else in his life aside from posing the question: “How should I live?”

“The true essence of freedom is that it can never restrict the freedom of another.”

“The most just death is that which is most willed. Our lives depend on the will of others, but death on ourselves alone. There is nothing to which we should apply ourselves more than this. Reputation has no place here and it is folly to think of it. Life is servitude if we lack the freedom to die.”

“To be free of customs: “Custom clouds the true face of things”.”

“But we need to make a distinction: we can love this or that, but we cannot “form a marriage bond” unless it is with our own selves.”

“For him books are not like men, who impose themselves and burden him with their chatter, and of whom it is hard to be rid. When you don’t call for them they stay put; you can just pick up this one or that, according to your whim: “Books are my kingdom. And here I seek to reign as absolute lord.” Books offer him their opinion and he responds with his own. They express their thoughts and arouse in him further thoughts. They do not disturb him when he is silent; they only speak when he questions them. Here is his realm. They await his delectation.”

“His tactic was to be as inconspicuous as possible, to attract the minimum of attention through outward appearance, to travel the world as if wearing a mask, to seek out only the path that would lead to himself.”

“Y esta búsqueda y este esfuerzo por la pureza de espíritu, por la salvaguarda de la libertad en una época de servilismo generalizado a ideologías y facciones, lo convierte hoy en nuestro hermano y contemporáneo.”

“We must “conserve the freedom of our soul and not mortgage it, except on those rare occasions when we deem it the right path”.”

“«La muerte más voluntaria es la más hermosa. La vida depende de la voluntad ajena; la muerte, de la nuestra»”

“el hombre que pugna por seguir siendo él mismo, simplemente él mismo, en medio de una catarata de fanatismo y destrucción.”

“One must seek another certitude beyond the world, beyond the homeland; one must refuse to join the chorus of the demoniacal and create one’s own homeland, one’s own world, outside the present time.”

“Few men on earth have ever fought with such faithfulness and tenacity to preserve their most intimate selves, their “essences”, from all impurities, from all toxins left by the rank spume of an epoch’s storm waves, and fewer still have managed to rescue from the time in which they lived, and for all time, their deepest selves.”

“He who thinks freely for himself, honours all freedom on earth.”

“the soul cannot remain at peace when the world beyond is in uproar.”

“We have all known it: even when closed in, the soul cannot remain at peace when the world beyond is in uproar. Through walls and windows we receive the tremors of the time; you might win a moment’s respite, but you cannot withdraw completely from the world.”

“Montaigne’s greatest pleasure is in the search, not the discovery.”

“Only the man who remains free from all and everything augments and sustains freedom on this earth.”

“Una de las misteriosas leyes de la vida es que descubrimos siempre tarde sus auténticos y más esenciales valores: la juventud, cuando desaparece; la salud, tan pronto como nos abandona, y la libertad, esa esencia preciosísima de nuestra alma, sólo cuando está a punto de sernos arrebatada o ya nos ha sido arrebatada.”