Michel De Montaigne Quotes

No spiritual mind remains within itself; it is always aspiring and going beyond its own strength.

It is not a mind, it is not a body that we educate, but it is a man, and we must not make two parts of him.

He who fears he will suffer, already suffers from his fear.

For truth itself has not the privilege to be spoken at all times and in all sorts.

Every man carries the entire form of human condition.

Tis the taste of effeminacy that disrelishes ordinary and accustomed things.

We are Christians by the same title as we are natives of Perigord or Germany.

Is it not a noble farce, wherein kings, republics, and emperors have for so many ages played their parts, and to which the whole vast universe serves for a theatre?

It should be noted that children at play are not playing about; their games should be seen as their most serious-minded activity.

There never were, in the world, two opinions alike, no more than two hairs, or two grains; the most universal quality is diversity.

In my youth I studied for ostentation; later, a little to gain wisdom; now, for recreation; never for gain.

When I play with my cat, who knows whether I do not make her more sport than she makes me?

Socrates thought and so do I that the wisest theory about the gods is no theory at all.

Wise people are foolish if they cannot adapt to foolish people.

Not being able to govern events, I govern myself, and apply myself to them if they will not apply themselves to me.

Fame and tranquility can never be bedfellows.

Ignorance is the softest pillow on which a man can rest his head.

As soon as women become ours we are no longer theirs.

The plague of man is the opinion of knowledge. That is why ignorance is so recommended by our religion as a quality suitable to belief and obedience.

Men are most apt to believe what they least understand.

Though we may be learned by another's knowledge, we can never be wise but by our own experience.

Honesty is a question of right and wrong, not a matter of policy

I put forward formless and unresolved notions, as do those who publish doubtful questions to debate in the schools, not to establish the truth but to seek it.

Every movement reveals us.

Order a purge for your brain, it will there be much better employed than upon your stomach.

O human creature,you are the investigator without knowledge, the magistrate without jurisdiction, and all in all, the fool of the farce.

I listen with attention to the judgment of all men; but so far as I can remember, I have followed none but my own.

If others surpass you in knowledge, in charm, in strength, in fortune, you have other causes to blame for it; but if you yield tothem in stoutness of heart you have only yourself to blame.

It is only certain that there is nothing certain, and that nothing is more miserable or more proud than man.

The thing in the world I am most afraid of is fear, and with good reason; that passion alone, in the trouble of it, exceeding all other accidents

Friendship is the highest degree of perfection in society.

Getting married is very much like going to a restaurant with friends. You order what you want then when you see what the other person has, you wish you had ordered that.

Intemperance is the plaque of sensuality, and temperance is not its bane but its seasoning.

I don't break the law* made for crooks, when I take away my own property - thus I am not obliged to conform to the law made for murderers when I deprive myself of my own life.

All the fame you should look for in life is to have lived it quietly.

I quote others in order to better express myself.

It would be better to have no laws at all, than to have too many.

To smell, though well, is to stink.

To honor him whom we have made is far from honoring him that hath made us.

Ambition is not a vice of little people.

I would rather be an expert on me than on Cicero

I would rather be old for a shorter time than be old before my time.

We need to interpret interpretations more than to interpret things.

I moreover affirm that our wisdom itself, and wisest consultations, for the most part commit themselves to the conduct of chance.

It is not without good reason, that he who has not a good memory should never take upon him the trade of lying.

Other people do not see you at all, but guess at you by uncertain conjectures.

Men are tormented by the opinions they have of things, and not the things themselves.

It is no hard matter to get children; but after they are born, then begins the trouble, solicitude, and care rightly to train, principle, and bring them up.

To make a crooked stick straight, we bend it the contrary way.

Have you known how to take rest? You have done more than he who hath taken empires and cities.