There can be no pleasure to me without communication: there is not so much as a sprightly thought comes into my mind, that it does not grieve me to have produced alone, and that I have no one to communicate it to.
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
“Of Vanity,” Essays, Book 3, ch. 9 (1588) [tr. Cotton/Hazlitt (1877)]
(Source)
Alternate translations:
With me no pleasure is fully delightsome without communication and no delight absolute except imparted. I doe not so much as apprehend one rare conceipt, or conceive one excellent good thought in my minde, but me thinks I am much grieved and grievously perplexed to have produced the same alone and that I have no sympathizing companion to impart it unto.
[tr. Florio (1603), "Of Vanitie"]
No pleasure has any taste for me when not shared with another: no happy thought occurs to me without my being irritated at bringing it forth alone with no one to offer it to.
[tr. Screech (1987)]
