“ no accidents can make true virtue turn her back; she seeks and requires evils, pains, and grief, as the things by which she is nourished and supported ”
Michel de Montaigne, The Essays of Michel de Montaigne (1580). copy citation
Author | Michel de Montaigne |
---|---|
Source | The Essays of Michel de Montaigne |
Topic | grief pain |
Date | 1580 |
Language | English |
Reference | |
Note | Translated by Charles Cotton |
Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3600/3600-h/3600-h.htm |
Context
“There is more constancy in suffering the chain we are tied to than in breaking it, and more pregnant evidence of fortitude in Regulus than in Cato; ‘tis indiscretion and impatience that push us on to these precipices: no accidents can make true virtue turn her back; she seeks and requires evils, pains, and grief, as the things by which she is nourished and supported; the menaces of tyrants, racks, and tortures serve only to animate and rouse her:
“Duris ut ilex tonsa bipennibus Nigrae feraci frondis in Algido, Per damma, percmdes, ab ipso Ducit opes, animumque ferro.””
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