》𝔹𝕠𝕠𝕜 𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕔𝕜 𝕕𝕖 𝕄𝕠𝕟𝕥𝕒𝕚𝕘𝕟𝕖 QOTD 》Do you like essays? “Reader, thou hast here an honest book—” Seigneur de Montaigne was brought up to speak Latin & hardly spoke French (or Gascon) as a child. He preferred Ovid’s Metamorphoses to Spanish tales of chivalry & admired the Latin poets. “Know Thyself”: Montaigne’s essais are attempts at himself, his revisions over approximately two decades (1570 - 1592) efforts to record “some traits of my character and of my humours”. This is the man himself, essays of himself, by himself, built up through layers of thought & paper as part of a deeper yearning to assay Man & his place in the universe: “Thus, reader, myself am the matter of my book”. & like the gentleman he was, he does all this in the style of a pleasant conversation. He is a delight to read & I reach for him whenever I’m in a quiet, reflective frame of mind that’s prone to wander & willing to be led by his stream of thought. xo Noelani Natalis laetus tibi, Monsieur de Montaigne 🌿 open window breeze cup of tea in the kitchen discussing essays “Had my intention been to seek the world’s favor, I should surely have adorned myself with borrowed beauties: I desire therein to be viewed as I appear in mine own genuine, simple, and ordinary manner, without study and artifice: for it is myself I paint.” | Michel de Montaigne, Essays #bookfeature #bookfeaturepage #currentread #bookcovers #prettybooks #oldbooks #micheldemontaigne #montaigne #authorslife #authorquotes #authorbirthday #essays #quotesilove #quotegram #bookquote #paperbacks #booknerdigan #booknerds #totalbooknerd #littlebookworm https://www.instagram.com/p/Cai5EeBrZBw/?utm_medium=tumblr
