No matter that we may mount on stilts, we still must walk on our own legs. And on the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.

[Si, avons nous beau monter sur des échasses, car sur des échasses encore faut-il marcher de nos jambes. Et au plus élevé trône du monde, si ne sommes assis que sur notre cul.]

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist

Essays, Book 3, ch. 13 (1580) [tr. Zeitlin (1936)]

Alt. trans.: "Even on the most exalted throne in the world we are only sitting on our own bottom." [Jacob Zeitlin (1936)]