All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.
Michel De MontaigneRead
It is a dangerous and fateful presumption, besides the absurd temerity that it implies, to disdain what we do not comprehend. For after you have established, according to your fine undertstanding, the limits of truth and falsehood, and it turns out that you must necessarily believe things even stranger than those you deny, you are obliged from then on to abandon these limits.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Disdaining the unknown limits our understanding and can lead to errors in judgment.
This quote emphasizes the danger of dismissing things we do not understand. Michel De Montaigne warns that when we arrogantly set boundaries around what we consider true or false based on our limited comprehension, we may ultimately discover that we have to accept truths that are far more perplexing than those we rejected. This realization obligates us to reevaluate our preconceived notions and acknowledges the vastness of knowledge yet to be explored.
Themes
UnderstandingTruthKnowledgeIgnoranceBelief
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about scientific theories and their implications.
More from Michel De Montaigne
All quotes βAll I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed.
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Pythagoras used to say that life resembles the Olympic Games: a few people strain their muscles to carry off a prize; others bring trinkets to sell to the crowd for gain; and some there are, and not the worst, who seek no other profit than to look at the show and see how and why everything is done; spectators of the life of other people in order to judge and regulate their own.
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There is not much less vexation in the government of a private family than in the managing of an entire state.
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Such as are in immediate fear of a losing their estates, of banishment, or of slavery, live in perpetual anguish, and lose all appetite and repose; whereas such as are actually poor, slaves, or exiles, ofttimes live as merrily as other folk.
Michel De MontaigneRead
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