Michel de Montaigne

(28 February 1533 - 13 September 1592)

I present my maladies, at most, for what they are and I avoid studied groans and words of foreboding. If not merriness at least composure is appropriate for those attending a sick wise man. Just because he knows he is in the opposite condition himself he picks no quarrel with health: he delights in contemplating in others health, strong and whole, at least enjoying it through their company. Just because he knows that he is sinking, he does not reject all thoughts of life or avoid ordinary conversation. I want to study illness when I am well: when it is present it makes a real enough impact without my imagination helping it. We prepare ourselves beforehand for such journeys as we are resolved to undertake, but the hour when we should be climbing into the saddle we devote to those about us and prolong it in their favour. I realize that there is an unexpected benefit from this publication of my manners: in some ways it serves me as a rule.1

Michel de Montaigne [Essays III, 9. On vanity]

  1. Serves me as a rule as well. [Garen] ↩