The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.

- Michel de Montaigne -

About this theme: Philosophy

Philosophy always sits awkwardly in a collection of quotations: systems do not compress into a sentence, and that is exactly what is asked of them. Kant's ethics or Nietzsche's critique of morality do not fit into a single line without loss. What survives is the phrasing — often brilliant, but lifted out of the context that gave it weight.

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