Quote Atlassourced quotes & context
Named source · 1581

The Journal of Montaigne’s Travels in Italy — Volume II Quotes by Michel de Montaigne: Context & Meanings

2 quotations linked to The Journal of Montaigne’s Travels in Italy — Volume II by or associated with Michel de Montaigne, with source notes, explanations and related topics.

More by Michel de Montaigne
About this source

Volume II of Montaigne’s 1580–1581 travel journal, represented in W. G. Waters’s 1903 English translation

Topics and ideas

Travel, observation, cultural comparison, curiosity, perspective, humility, opportunity, knowledge and the limits of outsider understanding.

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.

Read the source

Open a public or archival text connected with these quotations

Use these links when you want to inspect the wording in its wider work or edition.

Primary / edition source · gutenberg.org ↗
Leading themes in this source

Prominent ideas connected with the quotations represented here

Humility 2Mind 2Thinking Quotes About Reasoning, Reflection & Judgment 2Experience 2Perspective 2Deep 1Life 1Life Advice 1Life Lessons 1Thought-Provoking Quotes That Invite Reflection 1Understanding 1Wisdom Quotes About Judgment & Living Well 1Knowledge 1Travel 1
Represented passages

2 quotations with source context and meaning

Source identified1
I only gathered acquaintance with the public aspect of the city, the same that she shows to the meanest stranger.
Read & copy

“I only gathered acquaintance with the public aspect of the city, the same that she shows to the meanest stranger.”

Michel de Montaigne
Meaning & context

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 details

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.

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified2
Right occasion and opportunity have their privileges, and often hold out to ordinary folk what they deny to kings.
Read & copy

“Right occasion and opportunity have their privileges, and often hold out to ordinary folk what they deny to kings.”

Michel de Montaigne
Meaning & context

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 details

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.

↓ Download image (JPG)

More represented works

Continue through other sources by Michel de Montaigne

Essays of Montaigne — Book III1588 · 5 quotationsEssays of Montaigne — Book I1580 · 4 quotations
Essays of Montaigne — Book II1580 · 1 quotation