From Montaigne’s De l’utile et de l’honeste – with the Latin from Terence’s Heauton Timorumenos.
Personne n’est exempt de dire des fadaises: les malheur est, de les dire curieusement:
Nae iste magno conatu magnas nugas dixerit
Cela ne me touche pas; les miennes m’eschappent aussi nonchallamment qu’elles le valent
No one is free from speaking bits of nonsense – the misfortune is in making an effort to say them:
Yes, that one with a great effort has said a great nothing
That doesn’t touch me; mine flow from me with as little conscious attention as they’re worth.
Extracts 