Orts #883
It is very easy, upon accepted foundations, to build what you please . . . . our masters occupy and win beforehand as much room in our beliefs as they need in order to conclude afterward whatever they wish, in the manner of the geometricians with their axioms; the consent and approval that we lend them giving them the wherewithal to drag us left or right, and to spin us around at their will.
-- Montaigne, in an essay, Apology for Raymond Sebond
. . . there is nothing that throws us so much into dangers as an unthinking eagerness to get clear of them.
-- Montaigne, in an essay, Of coaches
. . . I never rebel so much against France as not to regard Paris with a friendly eye; she has had my heart since my childhood. And it has happened to me in this as happens with excellent things: the more other beautiful cities I have seen since, the more the beauty of Paris has power over me and wins my affection. I love her for herself, and more in her own essence than overloaded with foreign pomp. I love her tenderly, even to her warts and her spots. I am a Frenchman only by this great city: great in population, great in the felicity of her situation, but above all great and incomparable in variety and diversity of the good things of life; the glory of France, and one of the noblest ornaments of the world.
-- Montaigne, in an essay, Of vanity
When we judge of the assurance of other men in dying, which is without doubt the most noteworthy action of human life, we must be mindful of one thing: that people do not easily believe that they have reached that point. Few men die convinced that it is their last hour; and there is no place where the deception of hope deludes us more.
-- Montaigne, in an essay, Of judging the death of others
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https://bit.ly/2NQ27of
A long piece but essential reading.