Le plus important précepte de la science, est de sçavoir qu'il y a des choses qui ne méritent pas d'estre sceues; ce que Quintilien a dit particulièrement de quelques notions grammaticales. Mais il y en a d'autres qu'on peut dire estre absolument hors de la portée de nostre esprit, qui est trop profondément plongé dans la matière, pour bien reconnoistre ce qui en est dégagé
François de La Mothe Le Vayer , born on1 st August 15881 in Paris where he died onMay 9, 1672, Is a philosopher , philologist and historian French , and one of the main representatives of thought called libertine 2 the xvii th century. Long neglected, underestimated, even scorned 3 , despite some pioneering studies and the founding thesis of René Pintard (1943), his work has been the subject, since the end of the 1980s, of an enthusiastic reassessment, to which many testify. re-editions and an abundant critical bibliography.
