English wording
Translation
W. G. Waters — Translator · French → English
The wording shown here follows the represented English edition or translation.
Why the edition matters
Translations and editions can differ in wording, punctuation and emphasis, so the source attached to each quotation matters when exact phrasing is important.
Source identified1
“I only gathered acquaintance with the public aspect of the city, the same that she shows to the meanest stranger.”
Even after deliberate observation, Montaigne admits that a visitor may know only the public face of a place, making limits of access and outsider perspective part of responsible travel judgment.
Source note: The Journal of Montaigne’s Travels in Italy, Volume II, Rome, W. G. Waters translation, Project Gutenberg #70839. Montaigne says this after describing how actively he sought out Roman public life; the point is epistemic modesty about what a stranger can really know, not a claim that travel is futile.
Source identified2
“Right occasion and opportunity have their privileges, and often hold out to ordinary folk what they deny to kings.”
Montaigne observes that access and success do not follow rank mechanically: timing, circumstance and temperament can open an ordinary person’s path even when status or power fails to secure the same result.
Source note: The Journal of Montaigne’s Travels in Italy, Volume II, entry for March 6, 1581 during his visit to the Vatican Library, W. G. Waters translation, Project Gutenberg #70839. The sentence follows Montaigne’s surprise that he gained access where the French ambassador had failed; it is first-person journal reflection, not a general law that opportunity always defeats privilege.