Michel de Montaigne

“ Unlesse thick-old-growne woods their strength oppose.
So seemes it that the soule moved and tossed, if she have not some hold to take, loseth it selfe in it selfe, and must ever be stored with some object, on which it light and worke. Plutarch saith fitly of those affectionate themselves to Monkies and little Dogges, that the loving part which is in us, for want of a lawful hold, rather than it will be idle, doth forge a false and frivolous hold unto itselfe. ”

“ But in good earnest even as the arme being lifted up to strike, if the stroke hit not, but fall void, wee feele some paine in it, and many times strike it out of joynt; and that to yeeld our sight pleasant, it must not be lost and dispiersed in the vast ayre, but ought rather to have a limited bound to sustaine it by a reasonable distance. ”

“ They are vices that ever goe together: But in truth such actions enclime rather unto selfe-conceit, than to fondnes. Augustus Cæsar having beene beaten by a tempest on the sea, defied the God Neptune, and in the celebration of the Circensian games, that so he might be avenged on him, he caused his image to be removed from out the place, where it stood amongst the other Gods ”

“ A gentleman of ours exceedingly subject to the gout, being instantly solicited by his Physitions, to leave all manner of salt-meats, was wont to answer pleasantly, that when the fits or pangs of the disease tooke him, hee would have some body to quarell with ”