A quotation from Montaigne
But I do not approve of what I see in use, that is, to seek to affirm and support our religion by the prosperity of our enterprises. Our belief has other foundation enough, without going about to authorize it by events: for the people being accustomed to such plausible arguments as these and so proper to their taste, it is to be feared, lest when they fail of success they should also stagger in their faith.
[Mais je trouve mauvais ce que je voy en usage, de chercher à fermir & appuyer nostre religion par la prosperité de nos entreprises. Nostre creance a assez d’autres fondemens, sans l’authoriser par les evenemens. Car le peuple accoustumé à ces argumens plausibles, & proprement de son goust, il est danger, quand les evenemens viennent à leur tour contraires & des-avantageux, qu’il en esbranle sa foy.]
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essay (1572), “That a Man Is Soberly to Judge of the Divine Ordinance [Qu’il faut sobrement se mesler de juger des ordonnances divines], Essays, Book 1, ch. 31 (1.31) (1595) [tr. Cotton/Hazlitt (1877)]
Sourcing, notes, alternate translations: wist.info/montaigne-michel-de/…
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