Wednesday, October 5, 2011

For I see that we are but phantoms

I enjoy Montaigne and his essays and dip into them periodically as well as scan essays about the man himself. I have a number of times read of the fact that he had a number of quotations inscribed on the beams of his library. The number varies as to how many there were but usually somewhere in the mid fifties. I went looking for them and have not found a clean list but have located a document citing the quotations. That in turn was based on a letter between two gentlemen that recorded them in situ in 1860.

Montaigne was apparently apt to make translations from memory as a number of the quotations are listed to a particular source but cannot be located in that source. For example, he frequently "quotes" Ecclesiastes but the verse references don't match. Some of the quotes were not sourced in the inscriptions (or the sourcing was illegible when transcribed).

Finally, because of electronic font constraints, I am unable to render the Greek lettering.

From the original document "Of these 54 inscriptions 19 are nominally taken from the Bible (the greater part purporting to come from Ecclesiastes), 10 from Sextus Empiricus, 7 from Stobaeus, one each from Martial, Terence, Persius, Horace, Lucan, Lucretius, Pliny, Homer, Euripides, Erasmus, L'Hospital, and of 7 the source is uncertain."

Listed below in order are the inscriptions that Montaigne had rendered in his library:

I

The ultimate wisdom of man is to consider things as good, and for the rest to be untroubled.
- Ecclesiastes 1

(Extrema homini scientia ut res sunt boni consider e, caetera securum.)


II

God gave to man the desire for knowledge for the sake of tormenting him.
- Ecclesiastes i.

(Cognoscendi studium homini dedit Deus eius torquendi gratia.)


III

As the wind puffs out empty wine-skins, so pride of opinion foolish men
- Attributed to Socrates.

(Greek.)


IV

Under the sun and the law of all things that are a match for Fortune.
- Ecclesiastes 9

(Omnium quae sub sole sunt fortuna et lex par est.)


V

It is no more in this way than in that or in neither.
- Sextus Empiricus. Hypotyposes I. 19.

(Greek)


VI

We have a conception of the great or the small world of those things of which God has made so many.
- Ecclesiastes

(Orbis magnae vel parvae earum rerum quas Deus tarn multas fecit notitia in nobis est.)


VII

For I see that we are but phantoms, all we who live, or fleeting shadows.
- Sophocles

(Greek)


VIII

O wretched minds of men! O blind hearts! in what darkness of life and in how great dangers is passed this term of life whatever its duration.
- Lucretius. II. 14.

(O miseras hominum mentesl O pectora caeca! Qualibus in tenebris vitae, quantisque periclis Degitur hoc aevi quodcunque est?)


IX

What man will account himself great, whom a chance occasion destroys utterly.
- A fragment of Euripides

(Greek)


X

All things, together with heaven and earth and sea, are nothing to the sum of the universal sum.
- Lucretius. VI. 678-9.

(omnia cum coelo terraque manque Sunt nihil ad summam summa'i totius. )


XI

Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? there is more hope of a fool than of him.
- Proverbs 26.

(Vidisti hominem sapientem sibi viderif magis illo spem habebit insipiens.)

XII

As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her who is with child, even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.
- Ecclesiastes xi. 5.

(Quare ignoras quomodo anima conjungitur corpori, nescis opera Dei.)


XIII

It is possible and it is not possible.
- Sextus Empiricus : Hypotyposes.

(Greek)

XIV.

The good is admirable.

(Greek)


XV

A man of clay.
- Adages of Erasmus


XVI

Be not wise in your own conceits.
- AD ROM. xn.

(Nolite esse prudentes apud vosmetipsos.)


XVII

God permits no one but himself to magnify himself.
- Herodotus. VII. 10.

(Greek)


XVIII

In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.
- Ecclesiastes XL

(Nescis, homo, hoc an illud magis expediat, an aeque utrumque. )


XIX

I am a man; I deem nothing that is human to be foreign to me.
- Terence : Heautontimoroumenos.'

(Homo sum, humani a me nihil alienum puto.)


XX

Be not overwise lest thou shouldst become senseless.
- Ecclesiastes. vii.

(Ne plus sapias quant necesse est ne obstupescas.)


XXI

If any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.
- Incorrectly cited from COR. vm.

(Si quis existimat se aliquid scire, nondum cognovit quomodo oportet illud scire.)


XXII

If a man thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
- AD GAL. vi.

(Si quis existimat se aliquid esse, cum nihil sit, ipse se seducit.)


XXIII

Be not wiser than may be needful, but be wise
in moderation.
- ROM. xn.

(Ne plus sapite quam op or teat, sed sapite ad sobrietatem.)


XXIV

No one has ever known the truth and no one will know it.
- Xenophanes : cited by Diogenes Laertius and Sextus Em-
piricus.

(Greek)


XXV.

Who knows whether that which we call dying is living, and living is dying?
- Euripides: fragment of the Phrixus: in Stobaeus : Of the Praise of Death.

(Greek)


XXVI

All things are too difficult for man to understand them.
- Ecclesiastes. i.

(Res omnes sunt difficiliores quam ut eas possit homo consequi.)


XXVII

Wide is the range of man's speech hither and thither.
- Iliad. XX. 249.

(Greek)


XXVIII

The whole race of man has too greedy ears.
- Lucretius. IV. 598.

(Humanum genus est avidum nimis auricular um.)


XXIX

How great is the worthlessness of things.
- Persius. I. i.

(Quantum est in rebus inane. )


XXX

All is vanity.
- Ecclesiastes. i.

(Per omnia vanitas.)


XXXI

To keep within due measure and hold fast the end and follow nature.
- Lucan : Pharsalia. II. 381-2.

(servare modum, finemque tenere, N'aturamque sequi ....)


XXXII

Earth and ashes, wherefore art thou proud?
- Ecclesiastes. x. 9.

(Quid superbis terra et cinisf)


XXXIII

Woe unto ye that are wise in your own eyes !
- ISA. v.

(Vae qui sapientes estis in oculis vestris!)


XXXIV

Enjoy pleasantly present things, others are beyond thee.

(Fruere jucunde praesentibus, caetera extra te.)

XXXV

To every opinion an opinion of equal weight is opposed.
- Sextus Empiricus : Hypotyposes.

(Ilavrt Xoyw Aoyos uros dyri'icctrat. )


XXXVI

Our mind wanders in darkness, and, blind, cannot discern the truth.

(Nostra vagatur In tenebris, nee caeca potest mens cernere verum.)


XXXVII

God has made man like a shadow, of which who shall judge after the setting of the sun?
- Ecclesiastes 7.

(Fecit Deus hominem similem umbrae de qua post solis occasum quis judicabitf)


XXXVIII

The only certainty is that nothing is certain and nothing is more wretched or more proud than man.
- Pliny: Hist. Nat. II. 7.

(Solum cerium nihil esse certi et homine nihil miserius aut superbius.)


XXXIX

Of all the works of God nothing is more unknown to any man than the track of the wind.
- Ecclesiastes xi.

(Ex tot Dei operibus nihilom magis cuiquam homini incognitum quam venti vestigium.)


XL.

Of Gods, of men, each maketh still his choice.
- Euripides: Hippolytus. 104.

(Greek)

XLI

That on which you so pride yourself will be your ruin, you who think yourself to be somebody.
- Menander: fragment of the Empipramene ; in Stobaeus : Of Arrogance.

(Greek)


XLII

That which worries men is not things but that which they think about them.
- Epictetus : Enchiridion; in Stoabeus: Of Death.

(Greek)

XLIII

'Tis well for a mortal to have thoughts appropriate to men : i. e. not to be overwise.
- Sophocles: fragment of 'The Colchians' ; in Stobaeus: Of Arrogance.

(Greek)


XLIV

Why with designs for the far future dost thou weary thy mind unequal to them?
- Horace: Carm. II. n.

(Quid aeternis minarem Consiliis animum fatigasf)

XLV

The judgments of the Lord are a great deep.
- Psalms 35.

(Indicia Domini abyssus multa.)


XLVI

I determine in nothing.
- Sextus Empiricus : Hypotyposes.

XLVII

I do not comprehend.
- Sextus Empiricus : Hypotyposes.

(Greek)


XLVIII

I pause.
- Sextus Empiricus : Hypotyposes.

XLIX

I examine [consider].
- Sextus Empiricus : Hypotyposes.


L.

Be led by custom and opinion.

(More duce et sensu.)


LI

With alternating opinion.

(Judicio alternante.)


LII

I do not understand.
- Sextus Empiricus : Hypotyposes.

(Greek)

LIII

Nothing more.
- Sextus Empiricus : Hypotyposes.

(Greek)


LIV.

Inclining to neither side.
- Sextus Empiricus : Hypotyposes.

(Greek)

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