Everyone’s shit smells good to himself.
[Stercus cuique suum bene olet.]
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 3, ch. 8 (3.8), “Of the Art of Discussion [De l’art de conferer]” (1587) [tr. Screech (1987)]
(Source)
Montaigne is recollecting an adage collected by Desiderius Erasmus in his Adagia (3.4.2, No. 2302). It's actually rendered there as Suus cuique crepitus bene olet. Erasmus maintains that the proverb is not meant literally, but metaphorically (that people value most things that are their own), though he does concede that people are more repulsed by others' excrement than their own.
Montaigne only presents the Latin, not a French translation (as is true with most of his Classical quotations). In context, he uses the phrase regarding how people criticize others for flaws that they, themselves, possess (and even consider virtuous, in their own cases).
I have also seen a version of this cited as an Icelandic proverb.
This essay (and passage) first appeared in the 2nd (1588) edition.
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:Ev’ry mans ordure well,
To his owne sense doth smell.
[tr. Florio (1603)]To each one their own manure smells good.
[tr. Cotton/Hazlitt (1877)]Every man's filth smells sweet to himself.
[tr. Ives (1925)]Each man likes best the smell of his own dung.
[tr. Zeitlin (1934)]Every man likes the smell of his own dung.
[tr. Frame (1943)]Every man's filth smells sweet to him.
[tr. Cohen (1958)]Everyone thinks his own fart smells sweet.
[tr. Drysdall (2001); of Erasmus]
Quotations about:
self-value
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
Be polite and generous, but don’t undervalue yourself. You will be useful, at any rate; you may just as well be happy, while you are about it.
Fear comes from uncertainty. When we are absolutely certain, whether of our worth or worthlessness, we are almost impervious to fear. Thus a feeling of utter unworthiness can be a source of courage.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 87 (1955)
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