Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
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Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Since we cannot attain unto it, let us revenge ourselves with railing against it.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Critics and Criticism
The most manifest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness; her state is like that in the regions above the moon, always clear and serene.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Cheerfulness
It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Communication
There is no pleasure to me without communication: there is not so much as a sprightly thought comes into my mind that it does not grieve me to have produced alone, and that I have no one to tell it to.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Communication
The confidence in another man s virtue is no light evidence of a man s own, and God willingly favors such a confidence.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Confidence
But sure there is need of other remedies than dreaming, a weak contention of art against nature.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Dreams
I want death to find me planting my cabbage
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Death and Dying
Dying is a very dull, dreary affair. My advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Death and Dying
The worst of my actions or conditions seem not so ugly unto me as I find it both ugly and base not to dare to avouch for them.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Confession
It is not death that alarms me, but dying.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Death and Dying
If you don t know how to die, don t worry; Nature will tell you what to do on the spot, fully and adequately. She will do this job perfectly for you; don t bother your head about it.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Death and Dying
Confidence in another person s virtue is no light evidence of your own.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Confidence
There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Defeat
An unattempted lady could not vaunt of her chastity.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Chastity
The way of the world is to make laws, but follow custom.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Custom
Every abridgement of a good book is a fool abridged.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Books - Reading
The most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Cheerfulness
Death, they say, acquits us of all obligations.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Death and Dying
Fortune, seeing that she could not make fools wise, has made them lucky.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Fools and Foolishness
It is not the want, but rather abundance that creates avarice.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Greed
Who does not in some sort live to others, does not live much to himself.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de
Lies and Lying
Habit is second nature.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Habit
It would be better to have no laws at all, than to have too many.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Law and Lawyers
If a man urge me to tell wherefore I loved him, I feel it cannot be expressed but by answering: Because it was he, because it was myself.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Friends and Friendship
The thing I fear most is fear.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Fear
What harm cause not those huge draughts or pictures which wanton youth with chalk or coals draw in each passage, wall or stairs of our great houses, whence a cruel contempt of our natural store is bred in them?
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Graffiti
No man is so exquisitely honest or upright in living, but that ten times in his life he might not lawfully be hanged.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Honesty
I love those historians that are either very simple or most excellent. Such as are between both (which is the most common fashion), it is they that spoil all; they will needs chew our meat for us and take upon them a law to judge, and by consequence to square and incline the story according to their fantasy.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
History and Historians
I do myself a greater injury in lying that I do him of whom I tell a lie.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Lies and Lying
Even from their infancy we frame them to the sports of love: their instruction, behavior, attire, grace, learning and all their words azimuth only at love, respects only affection. Their nurses and their keepers imprint no other thing in them.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Girls
He who is not very strong in memory should not meddle with lying.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Lies and Lying
To honor him whom we have made is far from honoring him that hath made us..
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
God
I know what I am fleeing from, but not what I am in search of.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Fear
No wind favors him who has no destined port.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Goals
Example is a bright looking-glass, universal and for all shapes to look into.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Example
There is little less trouble in governing a private family than a whole kingdom.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Family
It is very easy to accuse a government of imperfection, for all mortal things are full of it.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Government
My home...It is my retreat and resting place from wars, I try to keep this corner as a haven against the tempest outside, as I do another corner in my soul.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Home
In plain truth, lying is an accursed vice. We are not men, nor have any other tie upon another, but by our word.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Lies and Lying
Lying is a terrible vice, it testifies that one despises God, but fears men.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Lies and Lying
No wind serves him who addresses his voyage to no certain port.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Goals
The smallest annoyances, disturb us the most.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Happiness
All the fame you should look for in life is to have lived it quietly.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Fame
There is no passion so contagious as that of fear.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Fear
There is not much less vexation in the government of a private family than in the managing of an entire state.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Family
My art and profession is to live.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Life and Living
We cannot do without it, and yet we disgrace and vilify the same. It may be compared to a cage, the birds without despair to get in, and those within despair to get out.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Marriage
A man should ever be ready booted to take his journey.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Travel and Tourism
The most profound joy has more of gravity than of gaiety in it.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Joy
I see men ordinarily more eager to discover a reason for things than to find out whether the things are so.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Knowledge
The memory represents to us not what we choose but what it pleases.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Memory
The word is half his that speaks, and half his that hears it.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Listening
Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside desperate to get out.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Marriage
If there is such a thing as a good marriage, it is because it resembles friendship rather than love.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Marriage
The finest lives in my opinion are the common model, without miracle and without extravagance.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Life and Living
He who has not a good memory should never take upon himself the trade of lying.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Memory
I was not long since in a company where I was not who of my fraternity brought news of a kind of pills, by true account, composed of a hundred and odd several ingredients; whereat we laughed very heartily, and made ourselves good sport; for what rock so hard were able to resist the shock or withstand the force of so thick and numerous a battery?
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Medicine
A good marriage would be between a blind wife and a deaf husband.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Marriage
Let Nature have her way; she understands her business better than we do.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Nature
Of all the infirmities we have, the most savage is to despise our being.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Self-pity
Man is stark mad; he cannot make a flea, and yet he will be making gods by the dozens.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Humankind
The weeping of an heir is laughter in disguise.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Inheritance
It should be noted that children s games are not merely games. One should regard them as their most serious activities.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Leisure
It is a common seen by experience that excellent memories do often accompany weak judgments.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Judgment and Judges
We need very strong ears to hear ourselves judged frankly, and because there are few who can endure frank criticism without being stung by it, those who venture to criticize us perform a remarkable act of friendship, for to undertake to wound or offend a man for his own good is to have a healthy love for him.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Judgment and Judges
It happens as one sees in cages: the birds who are outside despair of ever getting in, and those within are equally desirous of getting out
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Opposites
A wise man sees as much as he ought, not as much as he can.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Potential
Experience has taught me this, that we undo ourselves by impatience. Misfortunes have their life and their limits, their sickness and their health.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Patience
Philosophy is doubt.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Philosophers and Philosophy
It is easier to write an indifferent poem than to understand a good one.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Poetry and Poets
Scratching is one of nature s sweetest gratifications, and the one nearest at hand.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Pleasure
I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Reason
Once you have decided to keep a certain pile, it is no longer yours; for you can t spend it.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Possessions
There are few men who dare to publish to the world the prayers they make to Almighty God.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Prayer
Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of the mind is irreparable.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Poverty and The Poor
My life has been filled with terrible misfortune; most of which never happened.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Misfortunes
I conceive that pleasures are to be avoided if greater pains be the consequence, and pains to be coveted that will terminate in greater pleasures.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Pleasure
There is no course of life so weak and Scottish as that which is ordered by orders, method, and discipline.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Order
It is much more easy to accuse the one sex than to excuse the other.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Men
Taking it all in all, I find it is more trouble to watch after money than to get it.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Money
I have never seen a greater monster or miracle than myself.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Miracles
The most unhappy and frail creatures are men and yet they are the proudest.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Men
There never was in the world two opinions alike, no more than two hairs or two grains. The most universal quality is diversity.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Opinions
I care not so much what I am in the opinion of others, as what I am in my own; I would be rich of myself and not by borrowing.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Opinions
The greatest thing in the world is to know how to be self-sufficient.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Self-sufficiency
Whether you find satisfaction in life depends not on your tale of years, but on your will.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de
Satisfaction
The worthiest man to be known, and for a pattern to be presented to the world, he is the man of whom we have most certain knowledge. He hath been declared and enlightened by the most clear-seeing men that ever were; the testimonies we have of him are in faithfulness and sufficiency most admirable.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Public
Oh senseless man, who cannot possibly make a worm, and yet will make Gods by dozens.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Religion
The soul which has no fixed purpose in life is lost; to be everywhere, is to be nowhere.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Purpose
The great and glorious masterpiece of man is how to live with purpose.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Purpose
Few men have been admired of their familiars.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Servants
Obstinacy is the sister of constancy, at least in vigor and stability.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Stubbornness
Socrates thought and so do I that the wisest theory about the gods is no theory at all.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Theory
I tell the truth, not as much as I would like to, but as much as I dare. I dare more and more as I grow older.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Truth
After mature deliberation of counsel, the good Queen to establish a rule and immutable example unto all posterity, for the moderation and required modesty in a lawful marriage, ordained the number of six times a day as a lawful, necessary and competent limit.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Sex
True it is that she who escapeth safe and unpolluted from out the school of freedom, giveth more confidence of herself than she who comet sound out of the school of severity and restraint.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Self-confidence
Princes give me sufficiently if they take nothing from me, and do me much good if they do me no hurt; it is all I require of them.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Royalty
When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books, They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de
Thoughts and Thinking
The same reason that makes us chide and brawl and fall out with any of our neighbors, causeth a war to follow between Princes.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Quarrels
We endeavor more that men should speak of us, than how and what they speak, and it sufficeth us that our name run in men s mouths, in what manner soever. It stemma that to be known is in some sort to have life and continuance in other men s keeping.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Publicity
In the education of children there is nothing like alluring the interest and affection, otherwise you only make so many asses laden with books.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Teachers and Teaching
My reason is not framed to bend or stoop: my knees are.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Submission
It is the part of cowardliness, and not of virtue, to seek to squat itself in some hollow lurking hole, or to hide herself under some massive tomb, thereby to shun the strokes of fortune.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Suicide
He who lives not to others, lives little to himself.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Service
I quote others in order to better express myself.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Quotations
Who feareth to suffer suffereth already, because he feareth.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Suffering
Have you known how to take rest? You have done more than he who hath taken empires and cities.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Recreation
Even on the most exalted throne in the world we are only sitting on our own bottom.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Success
One may disavow and disclaim vices that surprise us, and whereto our passions transport us; but those which by long habits are rooted in a strong and powerful will are not subject to contradiction. Repentance is but a denying of our will, and an opposition of our fantasies.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Repentance
I consider myself an average man, except in the fact that I consider myself an average man.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Averages
In my opinion, the most fruitful and natural play of the mind is in conversation. I find it sweeter than any other action in life; and if I were forced to choose, I think I would rather lose my sight than my hearing and voice. The study of books is a drowsy and feeble exercise which does not warm you up.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Conversation
He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Argument
The beauty of stature is the only beauty of men.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Beauty
No profession or occupation is more pleasing than the military; a profession or exercise both noble in execution (for the strongest, most generous and proudest of all virtues is true valor) and noble in its cause. No utility either more just or universal than the protection of the repose or defense of the greatness of one s country. The company and daily conversation of so many noble, young and active men cannot but be well-pleasing to you.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Army and Navy
For truly it is to be noted, that children s plays are not sports, and should be deemed as their most serious actions.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Children
There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Conversation
We only labor to stuff the memory, and leave the conscience and the understanding unfurnished and void.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Education
Ambition is not a vice of little people.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Ambition
Make your educational laws strict and your criminal ones can be gentle; but if you leave youth its liberty you will have to dig dungeons for ages.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Discipline
How many things served us but yesterday as articles of faith, which today we deem but fables?
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Belief
Let us not be ashamed to speak what we shame not to think.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Candor
In true education, anything that comes to our hand is as good as a book: the prank of a page- boy, the blunder of a servant, a bit of table talk -- they are all part of the curriculum.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Education
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Belief
The strangest, most generous, and proudest of all virtues is true courage.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Courage
Nature should have been pleased to have made this age miserable, without making it also ridiculous.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Age and Aging
Age imprints more wrinkles in the mind than it does on the face.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Age and Aging
When I play with my cat, who knows whether she is not amusing herself with me more than I with her.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Amusement
The honor of the conquest is rated by the difficulty.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Victory
All the world knows me in my book, and may book in me.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Writers and Writing
Those things that are dearest to us have cost us the most.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Value
There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Virtue
Virtue rejects facility to be her companion. She requires a craggy, rough and thorny way.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Virtue
Virtue craves a steep and thorny path.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Virtue
Of all the benefits which virtue confers on us, the contempt of death is one of the greatest.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Virtue
From Obedience and submission comes all our virtues, and all sin is comes from self-opinion.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Virtue
Wise people are foolish if they cannot adapt to foolish people.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Wisdom
We can be knowledgeable with other men s knowledge, but we cannot be wise with other men s wisdom.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Wisdom
Wisdom hath her excesses, and no less need of moderation than folly.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De
Wisdom