Of the parsimony of the ancients
Attilius Regulus, general of the Roman army in Africa, in the height of all his glory and victories over the Carthaginians, wrote to the Republic to acquaint them that a certain hind he had left in trust with his estate, which was in all but seven acres of land, had run away with all his instruments of husbandry, and entreating therefore, that they would please to call him home that he might take order in his own affairs, lest his wife and children should suffer by this disaster. Whereupon the Senate appointed another to manage his business, caused his losses to be made good, and ordered his family to be maintained at the public expense.
The elder Cato, returning consul from Spain, sold his warhorse to save the money it would have cost in bringing it back by sea into Italy; and being Governor of Sardinia, he made all his visits on foot, without other train than one officer of the Republic who carried his robe and a censer for sacrifices, and for the most part carried his trunk himself. He bragged that he had never worn a gown that cost above ten crowns, nor had ever sent above tenpence to the market for one day’s provision; and that as to his country houses, he had not one that was rough-cast on the outside.
Scipio Aemilianus, after two triumphs and two consulships, went an embassy with no more than seven servants in his train. ’Tis said that Homer had never more than one, Plato three, and Zeno, founder of the sect of Stoics, none at all. Tiberius Gracchus was allowed but fivepence halfpenny a day when employed as public minister about the public affairs, and being at that time the greatest man of Rome.
(1580)
Montaigne, Michel de. “Of the parsimony of the ancients.” Trans. Charles Cotton. 1580. Quotidiana. Ed. Patrick Madden. 16 Sep 2006. 31 Oct 2025 <https://essays.quotidiana.org/montaigne/parsimony_of_the_ancients/>.
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Addison, Joseph (-)
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus (4-65)
Kenko, Yoshida (1283-1350)
Montaigne, Michel de (1533-1592)
Bacon, Francis (1561-1626)
Clinton, Elizabeth (1575-1638)
Cornwallis, William (1579-1614)
Howell, James (1594-1666)
Felltham, Owen (1602-1668)
Browne, Thomas (1605-1682)
Hyde, Edward (1609-1674)
Cowley, Abraham (1618-1667)
Cavendish, Margaret (1623-1673)
Culpeper, Thomas (1626-1697)
Temple, William (1628-1699)
Chudleigh, Mary (1656-1710)
Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)
Steele, Richard (1672-1729)
Haywood, Eliza (1693-1756)
Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Hume, David (1711-1776)
Cowper, William (1731-1800)
Goldsmith, Oliver (1735-1774)
Barbauld, Anna Laetitia (1743-1825)
More, Hannah (1745-1833)
Burney, Fanny (1752-1840)
Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759-1797)
Lamb, Mary (1764-1847)
Edgeworth, Maria (1767-1849)
Lamb, Charles (1775-1834)
Landor, Walter Savage (1775-1864)
Hazlitt, William (1778-1830)
Colton, Charles (1780-1832)
Hunt, Leigh (1784-1859)
De Quincey, Thomas (1785-1859)
Kirkland, Caroline (1801-1864)
Martineau, Harriet (1802-1876)
Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882)
Fuller, Margaret (1810-1850)
Cooper, Susan Fenimore (1813-1894)
Jacobs, Harriet (1813-1897)
Plato, Ann (1820-?)
Huxley, Thomas Henry (1825-1895)
Smith, Alexander (1830-1867)
Bird, Isabella (1831-1904)
Twain, Mark (1835-1910)
Howells, William Dean (1837-1920)
Hamilton, Gail (1838-1896)
Meynell, Alice (1847-1922)
Osler, William (1849-1919)
Harrison, Jane Ellen (1850-1928)
Stevenson, Robert Louis (1850-1894)
Repplier, Agnes (1855-1950)
Freud, Sigmund (1856-1939)
Lee, Vernon (1856-1935)
Martin, Edward Sanford (1856-1939)
Cooper, Anna Julia (1858-1964)
Jerome, Jerome K. (1859-1927)
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins (1860-1935)
Jacks, L. P. (1860-1955)
Guiney, Louise Imogen (1861-1920)
Benson, Arthur (1862-1925)
Wharton, Edith (1862-1937)
Bly, Nellie (1864-1922)
Far, Sui Sin (1865-1914)
Rhys, Grace Little (1865-1929)
Belloc, Hilaire (1870-1953)
Morris, Elisabeth (1870-1964)
Tomlinson, H. M. (1873-1958)
Chesterton, G. K. (1874-1936)
Zitkala-Ša (1876-1938)
Marquis, Don (1878-1937)
Gerould, Katharine Fullerton (1879-1944)
Milne, A. A. (1882-1956)
Eliot, T. S. (1888-1965)
Barbellion, W. N. P. (1889-1919)
Morley, Christopher (1890-1957)
Stein, Edith (1891-1942)
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Barbauld, Anna Laetitia (1743-1825) Bird, Isabella (1831-1904) Bly, Nellie (1864-1922) Burney, Fanny (1752-1840) Cavendish, Margaret (1623-1673) Chudleigh, Mary (1656-1710) Clinton, Elizabeth (1575-1638) Cooper, Anna Julia (1858-1964) Cooper, Susan Fenimore (1813-1894) Edgeworth, Maria (1767-1849) Far, Sui Sin (1865-1914) Fuller, Margaret (1810-1850) Gerould, Katharine Fullerton (1879-1944) Gilman, Charlotte Perkins (1860-1935) Guiney, Louise Imogen (1861-1920) Hamilton, Gail (1838-1896) Harrison, Jane Ellen (1850-1928) Haywood, Eliza (1693-1756) Jacobs, Harriet (1813-1897) Kirkland, Caroline (1801-1864) Lamb, Mary (1764-1847) Lee, Vernon (1856-1935) Martineau, Harriet (1802-1876) Meynell, Alice (1847-1922) More, Hannah (1745-1833) Morris, Elisabeth (1870-1964) Plato, Ann (1820-?) Repplier, Agnes (1855-1950) Rhys, Grace Little (1865-1929) Stein, Edith (1891-1942) Wharton, Edith (1862-1937) Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759-1797) Zitkala-Ša (1876-1938)
Essays
by Michel de Montaigne
Against idleness
All things have their season
Of anger
Of the battle of Dreux
Of cannibals
The ceremony of the interview of princes
Of coaches
Of constancy
Cowardice, the mother of cruelty
Of the custom of wearing clothes
Of the education of children
Of experience
Of the force of imagination
That the hour of parley is dangerous
Of idleness
Of the inconstancy of our actions
Of liars
Of a monstrous child
Of not communicating one’s honour
Not to counterfeit being sick
Of one defect in our government
Of the parsimony of the ancients
Of pedantry
Of posting
Of prayers
Of the punishment of cowardice
Of quick or slow speech
Of repentance
Of the Roman grandeur
Of a saying of Caesar
Of sleep
Of smells
Of sumptuary laws
That a man is soberly to judge of the divine ordinances
That men are justly punished for being obstinate in the defence of a fort that is not in reason to be defended
That men by various ways arrive at the same end
That men should not judge of our happiness till after our death
That our mind hinders itself
That the intention is judge of our actions
That the profit of one man is the damage of another
That the soul expends its passions upon false objects, where the true are wanting
That to study philosophy is to learn to die
That we are to avoid pleasures, even at the expense of life
That we laugh and cry for the same thing
Of thumbs
Tomorrow’s a new day
To the reader
Use makes perfect
Of the vanity of words
That we taste nothing pure
Related Essays
Michel de Montaigne
The vice opposite to curiosity is negligence.
Mary Wollstonecraft
We must have an object to refer our reflections to, or they will seldom go below the surface.
Ann Plato
Time is more valuable than money. If you hinder a scholar from studying, you commit a robbery against him; for robbers of time, are more guilty, than robbers of money.
H. M. Tomlinson
I felt instantly that for once it might be even more pleasant to entertain an audience than to be one of the crowd and bored.
Agnes Repplier
Genius flourishes like the mountain oak when it can strike root in the money-boxes of less gifted friends.
