In plain truth, lying is an accursed vice. We are not men, nor have any other tie upon another, but by our word. - Michel de Montaigne

It is as though our very touch bore infection: things which in themselves are good and beautiful are corrupted by our handling of them.

Ceux qui ont apparié notre vie à un songe ont eu de la raison... Nous veillons dormants et veillants dormons.''

Had I been placed among those nations which are said to live still in the sweet freedom of nature's first laws, I assure you I should very gladly have portrayed myself here entire and wholly naked.

Thus, reader, I am myself the matter of my book; you would be unreasonable to spend your leisure on so frivolous and vain a subject.