Michel de Montaigne

Name: The Essays of Montaigne — Chapter XXXVI. Of the most excellent men.
Author: Michel de Montaigne

The Essays of Montaigne — Chapter XXXVI. Of the most excellent men… (1877)

Summary

“The Essays of Montaigne — Chapter XXXVI. Of the most excellent men.”, published in 1877, is a work by Michel de Montaigne. It explores elements such as antiquity, actions and manners.

Quotes from The Essays of Montaigne — Chapter XXXVI. Of the most excellent men… (Michel de Montaigne)

Michel de Montaigne, The Essays of Montaigne — Chapter XXXVI. Of the most excellent men… (1877)

“ Antiquity has judged that in thoroughly sifting all the other great
captains, there is found in every one some peculiar quality that
illustrates his name: in this man only there is a full and equal virtue
throughout, that leaves nothing to be wished for in him, whether in
private or public employment, whether in peace or war; whether to live
gloriously and grandly, and to die: I do not know any form or fortune of
man that I so much honour and love. ”

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Michel de Montaigne, The Essays of Montaigne — Chapter XXXVI. Of the most excellent men… (1877)

“ Greeks, and the other of the Romans, were in all Plutarch. What a
matter! what a workman!
For a man that was no saint, but, as we say, a gentleman, of civilian and
ordinary manners, and of a moderate ambition, the richest life that I
know, and full of the richest and most to be desired parts, all things
considered, is, in my opinion, that of Alcibiades. ”

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Michel de Montaigne, The Essays of Montaigne — Chapter XXXVI. Of the most excellent men… (1877)

“ For the same
reason it was that Cleomenes, the son of Anaxandridas, said that he was
the poet of the Lacedaemonians, for that he was an excellent master for
the discipline of war. This singular and particular commendation is also
left of him in the judgment of Plutarch, that he is the only author in
the world that never glutted nor disgusted his readers, presenting
himself always another thing, and always flourishing in some new grace. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Michel de Montaigne, The Essays of Montaigne — Chapter XXXVI. Of the most excellent men… (1877)

“ But as to his manners and conscience, he infinitely
surpassed all men who ever undertook the management of affairs; for in
this one thing, which ought chiefly to be considered, which alone truly
denotes us for what we are, and which alone I make counterbalance all the
rest put together, he comes not short of any philosopher whatever, not
even of Socrates himself. ”

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Michel de Montaigne, The Essays of Montaigne — Chapter XXXVI. Of the most excellent men… (1877)

“ And who will consider withal his
so many military virtues, his diligence, foresight, patience, discipline,
subtlety, magnanimity, resolution, and good fortune, wherein (though we
had not had the authority of Hannibal to assure us) he was the first of
men, the admirable beauty and symmetry of his person, even to a miracle,
his majestic port and awful mien, in a face so young, ruddy, and radiant:
"Qualis, ubi Oceani perfusus Lucifer unda,
Quem Venus ante alios astrorum diligit ignes,
Extulit os sacrum coelo, tenebrasque resolvit;" ”

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Source: Wikisource

Michel de Montaigne, The Essays of Montaigne — Chapter XXXVI. Of the most excellent men… (1877)

“ But it is impossible to carry on such great
things as he did within the strict rules of justice; such as he are to be
judged in gross by the main end of their actions. The ruin of Thebes and
Persepolis, the murder of Menander and of Ephistion's physician, the
massacre of so many Persian prisoners at one time, of a troop of Indian
soldiers not without prejudice to his word, and of the Cossians, so much
as to the very children, are indeed sallies that are not well to be
excused. For, as to Clytus, the fault was more than redeemed ”

Michel de Montaigne

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Quotes from The Essays of Montaigne — Chapter XXXVI. Of the most excellent men… (Michel de Montaigne)

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