Commonplace Book
Short, cited, verbatim lines from the Essays — the kind worth copying into your own notebook.
Self-Knowledge & Doubt
“Let him, at least, know that he knows.
“I love to doubt, as well as to know.
“we may whet and sharpen our wits by rubbing them against those of others
On Marriage
“A good marriage, if there be any such, rejects the company and conditions of love, and tries to represent those of friendship.
“It happens, as with cages, the birds without despair to get in, and those within despair of getting out.
Cruelty & Kindness to Animals
“there is nevertheless a certain respect, a general duty of humanity, not only to beasts that have life and sense, but even to trees, and plants
Of Cannibals, Again
“I am afraid our eyes are bigger than our bellies, and that we have more curiosity than capacity; for we grasp at all, but catch nothing but wind.
“these men are very savage in comparison of us; of necessity, they must either be absolutely so or else we are savages; for there is a vast difference betwixt their manners and ours.
On the Shifting Self
“Others form man; I only report him.
“I do not paint its being, I paint its passage.
On Vanity & Writing About Oneself
“There is, peradventure, no more manifest vanity than to write of it so vainly.
“We are all of us richer than we think we are; but we are taught to borrow and to beg, and brought up more to make use of what is another's than of our own.
“I had rather understand myself well in myself, than in Cicero.
The Closing Words
“'Tis to much purpose to go upon stilts, for, when upon stilts, we must yet walk with our legs; and when seated upon the most elevated throne in the world, we are but seated upon our breech. The fairest lives, in my opinion, are those which regularly accommodate themselves to the common and human model without miracle, without extravagance.
Every line here traces to a specific line of Charles Cotton's 1877 translation (ed. Hazlitt) of the Essays — nothing here is paraphrased or invented. Want the fuller passages? See Where to Start.