“From now on, Montaigne would live for himself rather than for duty.”
describing Montaigne’s retirement at age 38, p. 24.
How to Live, or, A Life of Montaigne in one Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer (2010)
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Sarah Bakewell 12
English author and curator 1963Related quotes

From an issued statement from Mr. Benn on five dockers imprisoned for contempt of court (21 July 1972)
1970s

“I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees.”
“I would much rather have a living husband with no job and no gold than a dead one.”
ibid
The Rahotep series, Book 3: Egypt: The Book of Chaos (2011)

Source: Between Man and Man (1965), p. 178 -->

“I would rather lose all my lands and a hundred lives than be king over heretics.”
David A. Pharies, A brief history of the Spanish language (2007), p. 147.

Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 15
Context: Many have imagined republics and principalities which have never been seen or known to exist in reality; for how we live is so far removed from how we ought to live, that he who abandons what is done for what ought to be done, will rather bring about his own ruin than his preservation.

1790s, First Principles of Government (1795)
Context: An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws. He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.

Source: A Man of Law's Tale (1952), In London, p. 293