Michel de Montaigne Quotes
There is no passion that so much transports men from their right judgments as anger. No one would demur upon punishing a judge with death who should condemn a criminal upon the account of his own choler; why then should fathers and pedants be any more allowed to whip and chastise children in their anger? It is then no longer correction bat revenge. Chastisement is instead of physic to children; and should we suffer a physician who should be animated against and enraged at his patient?
Montaigne, Michel de. Essays of Michel de Montaigne. Translated by Charles Cotton, vol. 2, George Bell and Sons, 1892, p. 521.
This Biblical passage is often used by fundamentalists who claim that any child abuse laws limiting their right to discipline their children is an unconstitutional interference with their religious duty. Even in the early American colonies this was an issue. See Cotton Mather: {612010}
This seems to be the first instance of the famous dictum.
This quotation has caused a great deal of conflict between some parents and local governments. In many states, beating a child with a “rod” of other implement is a crime—often a felony. Religious fundamentalist parents insist on their right to bring up their children in accordance with “God’s law”. In American society generally, we have decided that children’s safety and rights trumps the Bible where there are conflicts. Spanking with an open hand in moderate amounts is generally considered legal although most child development experts counsel against it as it models a resort to violence and tends to culturally perpetuate itself over generations. See {642236} and {642235}.
Effective, terse quotation illustrating the research findings that adults who were abused as children tend to become child abusers themselves. Although he was referring to Black parents, the findings have been borne out for all ethnic groups.
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, also known as Lord of Montaigne, was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance, known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre. His work is noted for its merging of casual anecdotes and autobiography with intellectual insight. His massive volume Essais contains some of the most influential essays ever written.
