Orts #868

The archer who overshoots the target misses as much as the one who does not reach it.
     -- Montaigne, in an essay, Of moderation

I have always an idea in my mind, and some blurred picture, which offers me as if in a dream a better form than the one I have employed, but I cannot grasp it and exploit it. And that idea itself is on only a mediocre plane. From that I conclude that the productions of those great rich minds of the past are very far beyond the utmost stretch of my imagination and desire. Their writings not only satisfy and fill me, but astound me and transfix me with admiration. I judge their beauty; I see it, if not to the utmost, at least enough so that I cannot aspire to it myself.
     -- Montaigne, in an essay, Of presumption  

I am displeased with my mind for ordinarily producing its most profound and maddest fancies, and those I like the best, unexpectedly and when I am least looking for them; which suddenly vanish, having nothing to attach themselves to on the spot: on horseback, at table, in bed, but mostly on horseback, where my thoughts range most widely.
     -- Montaigne, in an essay, On some verses of Virgil
 

__________________________________

   "If one were to draft a script chronicling fascism’s resurrection, the abdication of America’s moral leadership would make a credible first scene."
     — Madeleine Albright, NYT, April 6, 2018,  https://nyti.ms/2IyFPUv