Auerbach

if I had to fashion him anew

I portray the passage; not a passing from one age to another, or, as the people put it, from seven years to seven years, but from day to day, from minute to minute. I must adapt my history to the moment. I may presently change, not only by chance, but also by intention.

every man carries within him the entire form of the human constitution.

And is it reasonable that I should show up to the world, where artifice and ceremony enjoy so much cred

credit and authority, the crude and simple results of nature, and of a nature besides very feeble? Is it not like making a wall without stone or a similar material, thus to build a book without learning or art?

I am the first to do so by my general being, as Michel de Montaigne, not as a grammarian or a poet or a lawyer.

Here, my book and I go hand in hand together, and keep one pace. In other cases we may commend or censure the work apart from the workman; not so here. Who touches the one touches the other

The Essays of Montaigne

decies repetita placebit

so rich in unexpected departures, is precise and logica