Michel de Montaigne

Name: The Essays of Montaigne — Chapter XXXIX. A consideration upon Cicero.
Author: Michel de Montaigne

The Essays of Montaigne — Chapter XXXIX. A consideration upon Cicero… (1877)

Summary

“The Essays of Montaigne — Chapter XXXIX. A consideration upon Cicero.”, published in 1877, is a work by Michel de Montaigne. It explores elements such as quality, eloquence and letters.

Quotes from The Essays of Montaigne — Chapter XXXIX. A consideration upon Cicero… (Michel de Montaigne)

Michel de Montaigne, The Essays of Montaigne — Chapter XXXIX. A consideration upon Cicero… (1877)

“ And
besides this difference, these are not idle and empty letters, that
contain nothing but a fine jingle of well-chosen words and delicate
couched phrases, but rather replete and abounding with grand discourses
of reason, by which a man may render himself not more eloquent, but more
wise, and that instruct us not to speak, but to do well. Away with that
eloquence that enchants us with itself, and not with actual things!
unless you will allow that of Cicero to be of so supreme a perfection as
to form a complete body of itself. ”

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Michel de Montaigne, The Essays of Montaigne — Chapter XXXIX. A consideration upon Cicero… (1877)

“ Caesar had not far transcended their eloquence, I scarce believe they
would ever have taken the pains to have written them; they made it their
business to recommend not their speaking, but their doing. And could the
perfection of eloquence have added a lustre suitable to a great
personage, certainly Scipio and Laelius had never resigned the honour of
their comedies, with all the luxuriances and elegances of the Latin
tongue, to an African slave; for that the work was theirs, its beauty and
excellence sufficiently declare ”

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Source: Wikisource

Michel de Montaigne, The Essays of Montaigne — Chapter XXXIX. A consideration upon Cicero… (1877)

“ At this rate, agriculture
was an honour to Cyrus, and eloquence and the knowledge of letters to
Charlemagne. I have in my time known some, who by writing acquired both
their titles and fortune, disown their apprenticeship, corrupt their
style, and affect ignorance in so vulgar a quality (which also our nation
holds to be rarely seen in very learned hands) , and to seek a reputation
by better qualities. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Michel de Montaigne, The Essays of Montaigne — Chapter XXXIX. A consideration upon Cicero… (1877)

“ I have
naturally a humorous and familiar style; but it is a style of my own, not
proper for public business, but, like the language I speak, too compact,
irregular, abrupt, and singular; and as to letters of ceremony that have
no other substance than a fine contexture of courteous words, I am wholly
to seek. I have neither faculty nor relish for those tedious tenders of
service and affection; I believe little in them from others, and I should
not forgive myself should I say to others more than I myself believe.
'Tis, doubtless, very remote from the present practice ”

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Source: Wikisource

Michel de Montaigne, The Essays of Montaigne — Chapter XXXIX. A consideration upon Cicero… (1877)

“ Chapter XXXIX. A consideration upon Cicero.
One word more by way of comparison betwixt these two. There are to be
gathered out of the writings of Cicero and the younger Pliny (but little,
in my opinion, resembling his uncle in his humours) infinite testimonies
of a beyond measure ambitious nature; and amongst others, this for one,
that they both, in the sight of all the world, solicit the historians of
their time not to forget them in their memoirs ”

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Source: Wikisource

Michel de Montaigne, The Essays of Montaigne — Chapter XXXIX. A consideration upon Cicero… (1877)

“ I find no great choice betwixt not
knowing to speak anything but ill, and not knowing to speak anything but
well.
"Non est ornamentum virile concimitas."
["A carefully arranged dress is no manly ornament."
—Seneca, Ep., 115.]
The sages tell us that, as to what concerns knowledge, 'tis nothing but
philosophy; and as to what concerns effects, nothing but virtue, which is
generally proper to all degrees and to all orders.
There is something like this in these two other philosophers, for they
also promise eternity to the letters they write to their friends ”

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Source: Wikisource

Michel de Montaigne, The Essays of Montaigne — Chapter XXXIX. A consideration upon Cicero… (1877)

“ Philip a musician, with whom he was disputing about some things
concerning his art: "Heaven forbid, sir," said he, "that so great a
misfortune should ever befall you as to understand these things better
than I." A king should be able to answer as Iphicrates did the orator,
who pressed upon him in his invective after this manner: "And what art
thou that thou bravest it at this rate? art thou a man at arms, art thou
an archer, art thou a pikeman?"—"I am none of all this ”

Michel de Montaigne

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Quotes from The Essays of Montaigne — Chapter XXXIX. A consideration upon Cicero… (Michel de Montaigne)

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