“ I speak truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare; and I dare a little the more, as I grow older ”
 Michel de Montaigne, The Essays of Michel de Montaigne (1580). copy citation

edit

“I have this, at least, according to discipline, that never any man treated of a subject he better understood and knew than I what I have undertaken, and that in this I am the most understanding man alive: secondly, that never any man penetrated farther into his matter, nor better and more distinctly sifted the parts and sequences of it, nor ever more exactly and fully arrived at the end he proposed to himself. To perfect it, I need bring nothing but fidelity to the work; and that is there, and the most pure and sincere that is anywhere to be found. I speak truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare; and I dare a little the more, as I grow older; for, methinks, custom allows to age more liberty of prating, and more indiscretion of talking of a man's self. That cannot fall out here, which I often see elsewhere, that the work and the artificer contradict one another: «Can a man of such sober conversation have written so foolish a book?» Or «Do so learned writings proceed from a man of so weak conversation?»” source

write a note