WIST Quotations https://wist.info Wish I'd Said That! Thu, 08 Oct 2026 22:10:40 +0000 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.3 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.3 https://wist.info/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/little-w-little-box-60x60.jpg defecation – WIST Quotations https://wist.info 32 32 43606282 Montaigne, Michel de -- Essays, Book 3, ch. 13 (3.13), “Of Experience [De l’Experience]” (1588) [tr. Screech (1987)] https://wist.info/montaigne-michel-de/86341/ https://wist.info/montaigne-michel-de/86341/#respond Thu, 08 Oct 2026 16:13:28 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=86341 Kings and philosophers shit; and so do ladies.

[Les rois et les philosophes fientent, et les dames aussi.]


Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 3, ch. 13 (3.13), “Of Experience [De l’Experience]” (1588) [tr. Screech (1987)]

First appeared in the 2nd (1588) edition. Because of the earthy nature of this paragraph (this and its following text), some translators (e.g., Ives (1925)) leave it untranslated, in French.

(Source (French)). Other translations:

Both Kings and Philosophers obey nature, and go to the stoole, and so doe Ladies.
[tr. Florio (1603)]

Both Kings and Philosophers go to stool, and Ladies too.
[tr. Cotton (1686); Cotton/Hazlitt (1877); Zeitlin (1934)]

Both kings and philosophers defecate, and ladies too.
[tr. Frame (1943)]

Both kings and philosophers defecate, and so do the ladies.
[tr. Cohen (1958)]

Both kings and philosophers shit, and ladies do, as well.
[tr. Atkinson/Sices (2012)]

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