“ Nature is a gentle guide, but not more sweet and gentle than prudent and just. ”
Michel de Montaigne, The Essays of Michel de Montaigne (1580). copy citation
| Author | Michel de Montaigne |
|---|---|
| Source | The Essays of Michel de Montaigne |
| Topic | sweetness nature guide |
| Date | 1580 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Translated by Charles Cotton |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3600/3600-h/3600-h.htm |
Context
“This is not what Socrates says, who is its master and ours: he values, as he ought, bodily pleasure; but he prefers that of the mind as having more force, constancy, facility, variety, and dignity. This, according to him, goes by no means alone—he is not so fantastic—but only it goes first; temperance with him is the moderatrix, not the adversary of pleasure. Nature is a gentle guide, but not more sweet and gentle than prudent and just.
«Intrandum est in rerum naturam, et penitus, quid ea postulet, pervidendum.» [«A man must search into the nature of things, and fully examine what she requires.» —Cicero, De Fin., V. 16.]
” source
«Intrandum est in rerum naturam, et penitus, quid ea postulet, pervidendum.» [«A man must search into the nature of things, and fully examine what she requires.» —Cicero, De Fin., V. 16.]
” source
Original quote
Meaning and analysis
