Kenneth Clark on Michel de Montaigne

I hugely recommend the DvD of Civilisation. I go back to it more than any other DVD I have. I find it so moving and enriching, because of the profound story of human nature and Clark's own quiet passion and authority in the telling. "I am a man and think nothing human is foreign to me" is a great maxim to live by but by no means easy!

Best documentary ever. I couldn't believe I had never heard of it.

I have better maxims to live by:
"To thine own self be true"- Shakespeare's Hamlet.

"Fair dealings bring more profit in the end"- Homer's Odyssey.

"My greatest skill has been to want but little"- Thoreau.

Life is the best.
Viva Montaigne!

Civilisation was something special.

I wish I could have sat at his feet at the National during his incumbency and listened to him enthuse benignly on Bellini or Watteau, like a kindly (but dusty) old headmaster.

Lord Clark was - like many learned members of his generation - imbued with a desire to repay to the greater world some of the richness of learning that a developed and cultivated sensibility had given him in life.

We are fortunate indeed that he was blessed with the skill of distilling richly complex ideas concerning the developments of high-culture with a lucidity and ease of erudition that can only be lamented considering it's paucity in the bear-pit that is the broadcasting of today.

This series seems really interesting.

I heard about in on a 'top 50 documentaries' type programme of all things xD

Woah you truly are an ignorant excuse of a human being. Just what exactly are you trying to prove or promote here? The extension of another barbaric, close-minded society and remain as thick as a set of assholes?

Part of the problem with being an informed human being in the modern age is the sheer volume of relevant knowledge. It has been argued that Milton was the last man to 'know everything' - by that it was meant that he knew all the relevant academia I suppose. But I was unaware of all but the most basic details of Montaigne. For anyone who liked this I would suggest the series of documentaries by Adam Curtis. Much more modrn in style but Art in themselves. And I'd welcome any other recommendations.

jfsim: 'I do not want to be elitist'

I know what you mean. I hate the arrogance of elitists and the lack of caring that many people have about history, art, literature and so on.

It seems there are too few people that have a balance of knowledge and are also down-to-earth.