Montesquieu Quote

And yet there is nothing so badly imagined: nature seems to have provided, that the follies of men should be transient, but they by writing books render them permanent. A fool ought to content himself with having wearied those who lived with him: but he is for tormenting future generations; he is desirous that his folly should triumph over oblivion, which he ought to have enjoyed as well as his grave; he is desirous that posterity should be informed that he lived, and that it should be known for ever that he was a fool.


Commonly paraphrased as "An author is a fool who, not content with having bored those who have lived with him, insists on boring future generations". - Lettres Persanes (1721)


And yet there is nothing so badly imagined: nature seems to have provided, that the follies of men should be transient, but they by writing books...

And yet there is nothing so badly imagined: nature seems to have provided, that the follies of men should be transient, but they by writing books...

And yet there is nothing so badly imagined: nature seems to have provided, that the follies of men should be transient, but they by writing books...

And yet there is nothing so badly imagined: nature seems to have provided, that the follies of men should be transient, but they by writing books...