--- title: "1 Michel De Montaigne Quotes By Joshua Foer" description: "1 Michel De Montaigne quotes by Joshua Foer. Plus more from Joshua Foer and more Michel De Montaigne sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bf3/joshua-foer-4147_books_i-don-t-think-i-m-an-exceptionally-bad-r_11853.jpg" --- > [“I don’t think I’m an exceptionally bad reader. I suspect that many people, maybe even most, are like me. We read and read and read, and we forget and forget and forget. So why do we bother? Michel de Montaigne…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-foer/i-don-t-think-i-m-an-exceptionally-bad-reader-i-suspect-that-many/) [Joshua Foer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-foer/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bf3/joshua-foer-4147_books_i-don-t-think-i-m-an-exceptionally-bad-r_11853.jpg) ## More by Joshua Foer > [Jonah Lehrer is one of the most talented explainers of science that we’ve got. What a pleasure it is to follow his investigation of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-foer/jonah-lehrer-is-one-of-the-most-talented-explainers-of-science-that/) [Joshua Foer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-foer/) > [“I don’t think I’m an exceptionally bad reader. I suspect that many people, maybe even most, are like me. We read and read and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-foer/i-don-t-think-i-m-an-exceptionally-bad-reader-i-suspect-that-many/) [Joshua Foer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-foer/) > [Life seems to speed up as we get older because life gets less memorable as we get older.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-foer/life-seems-to-speed-up-as-we-get-older-because-life-gets-less/) [Joshua Foer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-foer/) > [“We can only think about roughly seven things at a time.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-foer/we-can-only-think-about-roughly-seven-things-at-a-time/) [Joshua Foer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-foer/) > [With our blogs and tweets, digital cameras, and unlimited-gigabyte e-mail archives, participation in the online culture now means creating a trail of always present,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-foer/with-our-blogs-and-tweets-digital-cameras-and-unlimited-gigabyte-e/) [Joshua Foer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-foer/) > [How much are we willing to lose from our already short lives by losing ourselves in our Blackberries, our iPhones, by not paying attention…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-foer/how-much-are-we-willing-to-lose-from-our-already-short-lives-by/) [Joshua Foer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-foer/) > [“I Came away from the U.S. Memory Championship eager to find out how Ed and Lukas did it. Were these just extraordinary individuals, pridigies…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-foer/i-came-away-from-the-u-s-memory-championship-eager-to-find-out-how-ed/) [Joshua Foer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-foer/) > [The 'OK Plateau' is that place we all get to where we just stop getting better at something. Take typing, for example. You might…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-foer/the-ok-plateau-is-that-place-we-all-get-to-where-we-just-stop-getting/) [Joshua Foer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-foer/) > [“One book, printed in the Heart’s own wax / Is worth a thousand in the stacks.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-foer/one-book-printed-in-the-heart-s-own-wax-is-worth-a-thousand-in-the-2/) [Joshua Foer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-foer/) > [Languages are something of a mess. They evolve over centuries through an unplanned, democratic process that leaves them teeming with irregularities, quirks, and words…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-foer/languages-are-something-of-a-mess-they-evolve-over-centuries-through/) [Joshua Foer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-foer/) > [Invented languages have often been created in tandem with entire invented universes, and most conlangers come to their craft by way of fantasy and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-foer/invented-languages-have-often-been-created-in-tandem-with-entire/) [Joshua Foer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-foer/) > [“Perhaps, as Borges concludes in his story, it is forgetting, not remembering, that is the essence of what makes us human.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-foer/perhaps-as-borges-concludes-in-his-story-it-is-forgetting-not/) [Joshua Foer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-foer/) > [Someday in the distant cyborg future, when our internal and external memories fully merge, we may come to possess infinite knowledge. But that's not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-foer/someday-in-the-distant-cyborg-future-when-our-internal-and-external/) [Joshua Foer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-foer/) > [What makes things memorable is that they are meaningful, significant, colorful.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-foer/what-makes-things-memorable-is-that-they-are-meaningful-significant/) [Joshua Foer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-foer/) > [“As the historian Jocelyn Penny Small pointed out, GODISNOWHERE comes out a lot differently when rendered as GOD IS NOW HERE versus GOD IS…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-foer/as-the-historian-jocelyn-penny-small-pointed-out-godisnowhere-comes/) [Joshua Foer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-foer/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/michel-de-montaigne/joshua-foer/#itemlist", "name": "1 Michel De Montaigne Quotes By Joshua Foer", "numberOfItems": 1, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“I don’t think I’m an exceptionally bad reader. I suspect that many people, maybe even most, are like me. We read and read and read, and we forget and forget and forget. So why do we bother? Michel de Montaigne expressed the dilemma of extensive reading in the sixteenth century: “I leaf through books, I do not study them,” he wrote. “What I retain of them is something I no longer recognize as anyone else’s. It is only the material from which my judgment has profited, and the thoughts and ideas with which it has become imbued; the author, the place, the words, and other circumstances, I immediately forget.” He goes on to explain how “to compensate a little for the treachery and weakness of my memory,” he adopted the habit of writing in the back of every book a short critical judgment, so as to have at least some general idea of what the tome was about and what he thought of it.  ”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Joshua Foer" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-foer/i-don-t-think-i-m-an-exceptionally-bad-reader-i-suspect-that-many/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bf3/joshua-foer-4147_books_i-don-t-think-i-m-an-exceptionally-bad-r_11853.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bf3/joshua-foer-4147_books_i-don-t-think-i-m-an-exceptionally-bad-r_11853.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bf3/joshua-foer-4147_books_i-don-t-think-i-m-an-exceptionally-bad-r_11853.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I don’t think I’m an exceptionally bad reader. 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