All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.
Michel De MontaigneRead
If atoms do, by chance, happen to combine themselves into so many shapes, why have they never combined together to form a house or a slipper? By the same token, why do we not believe that if innumerable letters of the Greek alphabet were poured all over the market-place they would eventually happen to form the text of the Iliad?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote questions the improbability of random occurrences leading to complex structures or meaningful outcomes.
Michel De Montaigne's quote emphasizes the unlikelihood of chaos yielding order without a guiding principle. It serves as a reflection on the nature of creation and existence, suggesting that while randomness may lead to possibilities, it is the underlying structure and intention that ultimately shape reality into something coherent and meaningful.
Themes
AtomsCombinationsComplexityOrderRandomness
In practice
Example use cases
During a philosophical debate to illustrate the nature of existence.
More from Michel De Montaigne
All quotes →All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed.
Michel De MontaigneRead
Pythagoras used to say that life resembles the Olympic Games: a few people strain their muscles to carry off a prize; others bring trinkets to sell to the crowd for gain; and some there are, and not the worst, who seek no other profit than to look at the show and see how and why everything is done; spectators of the life of other people in order to judge and regulate their own.
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There is not much less vexation in the government of a private family than in the managing of an entire state.
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Those who have compared our life to a dream were right... we were sleeping wake, and waking sleep.
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Such as are in immediate fear of a losing their estates, of banishment, or of slavery, live in perpetual anguish, and lose all appetite and repose; whereas such as are actually poor, slaves, or exiles, ofttimes live as merrily as other folk.
Michel De MontaigneRead
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