It's from Vivre sa vie.

May 20, 2013 9:09 PM

Can someone who speaks French tell me exactly how this quote should be formatted?

A friend wants to get the following quote tattooed on herself:

Click me!

What we're not sure about is which manner of accent marks there are in the words "preter" and "soi-meme." If someone could be awesome and type it out for her, we'd be much obliged. No one likes a mis-accented tattoo.

posted by MiaWallace to Society & Culture (7 answers total)

It's a circumflex.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:15 PM on May 20, 2013

Best answer: Il faut se prêter aux autres et se donner à soi-même.
posted by herrdoktor at 9:16 PM on May 20, 2013

prêter
soi-même
posted by matildaben at 9:17 PM on May 20, 2013

Best answer: Il faut se prêter aux autres et se donner à soi-même.

There's a circumflex over the e's in preter and meme, and an accent grave over the a (likely not shown in your pic because of the all-caps)
posted by brainmouse at 9:18 PM on May 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

Best answer: As far as I can see, it's just missing a grave accent on the "a" -- so should be: "Il faut se prêter aux autres et se donner à soi-même".

Whether Montaigne actually wrote it is another question, but I don't think anyone will care much as long as the punctuation's OK :-).
posted by pont at 9:18 PM on May 20, 2013

Response by poster: You guys are great. Thank you.
posted by MiaWallace at 9:19 PM on May 20, 2013

Best answer: Follow-up: it is Montaigne (Essais, III, 10), but slightly paraphrased from the original form:

Mon opinion est, qu'il se faut prester à autruy, et ne se donner qu'à soy-mesme.

But the modernized spelling is probably safer unless your friend wants to spend the rest of her life explaining to pedants that this spelling was correct in the 16th century. (The sense is also a little different in this version, specifying that you should only give yourself to yourself, but that's probably implied anyway.)
posted by pont at 9:27 PM on May 20, 2013 [6 favorites]