Men should be bewailed at their birth and not at their death.

Il faut pleurer les hommes a leur naissance, et non pas a leur mort.

Montesquieu

Persian Letters

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Topic

Tragic view of life Birth and death The human condition

Author

Montesquieu

Source

Persian Letters

Medium

Novel

Genre

Epistolary novel

Language

French

Time

1721 1720s 18th century

Occupation

Philosopher Writer

From

France Europe

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Montesquieu. Uzbek to Ibben. 20th of the moon of Rhegeb, 1713.

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Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote from the 1720s

I said there was a society of men among us bred up from their youth in the art of proving by words multiplied for the purpose that white is black and black is white, according as they are paid. To this society all the rest of the people are slaves.

Jonathan Swift

Gulliver's Travels

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More information about this quote
Topic
Lawyers
Speaker
On lawyers.

Author

Jonathan Swift
Source
Gulliver's Travels
Genre
Satire Travel writing
Language
English
Time
1726 1720s 18th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Swift, Jonathan. Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships. London: Benjamin Motte, 1726, pt. 4, ch. 5.

Current Citation

Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels, edited by Albert J. Rivero. W. W. Norton & Company, 2001, pt. 4, ch. 5.

Another quote about The human condition

And so from hour to hour we ripe and ripe,
And then from hour to hour we rot and rot,
And thereby hangs a tale.

William Shakespeare

As You Like It

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More information about this quote
Topic
Aging Mortality The human condition
Speaker
Jaques

Author

William Shakespeare
Source
As You Like It
Medium
Play
Genre
Comedy (play)
Language
English
Time
1616 1610s 17th century
Era
European Renaissance
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Shakespeare, William. "As You Like It." Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. London: Edward Blount and William and Isaac Jaggard, 1623, act 2, sc. 7.

Current Citation

Shakespeare, William. "As You Like It." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, act 2, sc. 7.

Another quote originally in French

The bonds between ourselves and another person exist only in our minds. Memory as it grows fainter loosens them, and notwithstanding the illusion by which we want to be duped and which, out of love, friendship, politeness, deference, duty, we dupe other people, we exist alone. Man is the creature who cannot escape from himself, who knows other people only in himself, and when he asserts the contrary, he is lying.

Marcel Proust

In Search of Lost Time

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More information about this quote
Topic
Existential solitude Connecting with others Isolation The human condition

Author

Marcel Proust
Source
The Fugitive In Search of Lost Time
Medium
Novel
Genre
Modernist literature
Language
French
Time
1922 1920s 20th century
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Proust, Marcel. Albertine disparue [Albertine Gone]. Paris: Gallimard, 1927.

Current Citation

Proust, Marcel. The Fugitive, edited and translated by Peter Collier. Penguin Classics, 2021.