Quote
By Michel de Montaigne
I would always have a man to be doing, and, as much as in him lies, to extend and spin out the offices of life; and then let death take me planting my cabbages, indifferent to him, and still less of my gardens not being finished.
- Source
- Essays of Michel de Montaigne, translated by Charles Cotton, 1877 · Book I, chapter 19, That to study philosophy is to learn to die
- Read at
- Translated by Charles Cotton; edited and revised by William Carew Hazlitt (London, 1877); Project Gutenberg eBook #3600
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From the essay That to Study Philosophy is to Learn to Die (Book I, chapter 19 in Charles Cotton's translation, revised by W. C. Hazlitt, 1877). Montaigne wrote in French, so this is the translator's wording. The full sentence is given; the popular short form, "I want death to find me planting my cabbages", is a paraphrase.