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Full Idea
Take a beam wide enough to walk along: suspend it between two towers: there is no philosophical wisdom, however firm, which could make us walk along it just as we would if we were on the ground.
Gist of Idea
No wisdom could make us comfortably walk a wide beam if it was high in the air
Source
Michel de Montaigne (Apology for Raymond Sebond [1580], p.0672)
Book Ref
Montaigne,Michel de: 'The Complete Essays', ed/tr. Screech,M.A. [Penguin 1987], p.672
A Reaction
This proposes great scepticism about the practical application of philosophical wisdom, but if we talk in terms of the wise assessment of risk in any undertaking, our caution on the raised beam makes perfectly good sense.
| 6258 | Virtue is the distinctive mark of truth, and its greatest product [Montaigne] |
| 6259 | Why can't a wise man doubt everything? [Montaigne] |
| 6260 | Sceptics say there is truth, but no means of making or testing lasting judgements [Montaigne] |
| 6261 | The soul is in the brain, as shown by head injuries [Montaigne] |
| 6262 | We lack some sense or other, and hence objects may have hidden features [Montaigne] |
| 6263 | No wisdom could make us comfortably walk a wide beam if it was high in the air [Montaigne] |