以上の理由で，わたしは教師たちへの従属から解放されるとすぐに，文字による学問〔人文学〕をまったく放棄してしまった。そしてこれからは，わたし自身のうちに，あるいは世界という大きな書物のうちに見つかるかもしれない学問だけを探求しようと決心し，青春の残りをつかって次のことをした。旅をし，あちこちの宮廷や軍隊を見，気質や身分の異なるさまざまな人たちと交わり，さまざまの経験を積み，運命の巡り合わせる機会をとらえて自分に試煉を課し，いたるところで目の前に現れる事柄について反省を加え，そこから何らかの利点をひきだすことだ。というのは，各人が自分に重大な関わりのあることについてなす推論では，判断を誤ればたちまちその結果によって罰を受けるはずなので，文字の学問をする学者が書斎でめぐらす空疎な思弁についての推論よりも，はるかに多くの真理を見つけ出せると思われたからだ。学者の思弁は，それを真らしく見せようとすればするほど，多くの才知と技巧をこらさねばならなかったはずだから，それが常識から離れれば離れるほど，学者が手にする虚栄心の満足もそれだけ大きい。それ以外には何の益ももたらさない。だがわたしは，自分の行為をはっきりと見，確信をもってこの人生を歩むために，真と偽を区別することを学びたいという，何よりも強い願望をたえず抱いていた。
For these reasons, as soon as my age permitted
me to pass from under the control of my instructors,
I entirely abandoned the study of letters,
and resolved no longer to seek any other
science than the knowledge of myself, or
of the great book of the world. I spent the
remainder of my youth in travelling, in visiting
courts and armies, in holding intercourse
with men of different dispositions and ranks,
in collecting varied experience, in proving
myself in the different situations into which
fortune threw me, and, above all, in making
such reflection on the matter of my experience
as to secure my improvement. For it occurred
to me that I should find much more truth
in the reasonings of each individual with
reference to the affairs in which he is personally
interested, and the issue of which must presently
punish him if he has judged amiss, than in
those conducted by a man of letters in his
study, regarding speculative matters that
are of no practical moment, and followed
by no consequences to himself, farther, perhaps,
than that they foster his vanity the better
the more remote they are from common sense;
requiring, as they must in this case, the
exercise of greater ingenuity and art to
render them probable. In addition, I had
always a most earnest desire to know how
to distinguish the true from the false, in
order that I might be able clearly to discriminate
the right path in life, and proceed it in
with confidence.