Necessity is a violent school-mistress. [Fr., C'est une violente maistresse d'eschole que la neces...
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE How many things served us yesterday for articles of faith, which to-day are fables to us! [Fr., C...
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE My appetite comes to me while eating.
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE Like the watermen who advance forward while they look backward.
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE One may be humble out of pride.
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE You have your face bare; I am all face. [Fr., Vous avez bien la face desouverte; moi je suis tout ...
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE Persons of mean understandings, not so inquisitive, nor so well instructed, are made good Christian...
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE You may break, you may shatter the vase, as you will, But the scent of the roses will hang round i...
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE Wouldst thou, or thou, Forego what's now, For all that hope may say? No--joy's reply, ...
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE Whose wit in the combat as gentle as bright Ne'er carried a heartstain away on its blade.
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE While tears that from repentance flow, In bright exhalement reach the skies.
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE To-night, at least, to-night be gay, Whate'er to-morrow brings.
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE Time flies, as he flies, adds increase to her truth, And gives to her mind what he steals from her...
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE Then let me quaff the foamy tide, And through the dance meandering glide.
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE Then fill the bowl--way with gloom! Our joys shall always last; For Hope shall brighten days t...
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE The pain Remembrance gives, when the fix'd dart Is stirred thus in the wound again.
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE Some flowers of Eden ye yet inherit, But the trail of the serpent is over them all.
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE So closely our whims on our miseries tread, That the laugh is awak'd ere the tear can be dried.
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE Round, round, while thus we go round, The best thing a man can do, Is to make it at least, a m...
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE Oh, sweet youth, how soon it fades! Sweet joys of youth, how fleeting!
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE Light may come where all looks darkest, Hope hath life, when life seems o'er.
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE Bliss itself is not worth having, If we're by compulsion blest.
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE Blest tears of soul-felt penitence! In whose benign, redeeming flow Is felt the first, the onl...
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE What's done can't be undone. [Fr., Ce qui est faicr ne se peult desfaire.]
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE A wise man loses nothing, if he but save himself.
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE Even opinion is of force enough to make itself to be espoused at the expense of life.
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE There never was in the world two opinions alike, no more that two hairs, or two grains; the most un...
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE No one is exempt from taking nonsense; the misfortune is to do it solemnly.
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE "Oh! what a vile and abject thing is man unless he can erect himself above humanity." Here is a b...
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE Arts and sciences are not cast in a mould, but are found and perfected by degrees, by often handlin...
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE The bees pillage the flowers here and there but they make honey of them which is all their own; it ...
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE Amongst so many borrowed things, am glad if I can steal one, disguising and altering it for some ne...
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE To each foot its own shoe. [Fr., A chaque pied son soulier.]
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE When we see a man with bad shoes, we say it is no wonder, if he is a shoemaker. [Fr., Quand nous ...
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE Every one's true worship was that which he found in use in the place where he chanced to be.
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE 'Tis so much to be a king, that he only is so by being so. - Michael Eyquen de Montaigne,
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE How the Doctor's brow should smile, Crown'd with wreaths of camomile.
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE Adrian, the Emperor, exclaimed incessantly, when dying, "That the crowd of physicians had killed hi...
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE He who should teach men to die, would at the same time teach them to live.
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE How many worthy men have we seen survive their own reputations!
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE The secret counsels of princes are a troublesome burden to such as have only to execute them. [Fr...
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE Whom conscience, ne'er asleep, Wounds with incessant strokes, not loud, but deep.
MICHAEL EYQUEN DE MONTAIGNE There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.
MICHAEL DE MONTAIGNE He who is not very strong in memory should not meddle with lying.
MICHAEL DE MONTAIGNE I have never seen a greater monster or miracle in the world than myself.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE I set forth a humble and inglorious life; that does not matter. You can tie up all moral philosophy ...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Let us permit nature to have her way. She understands her business better than we do.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Rejoice in the things that are present; all else is beyond thee.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE I know well what I am fleeing from but not what I am in search of.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside equally de...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE 'Tis the sharpness of our mind that gives the edge to our pains and pleasures.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Of all our infirmities, the most savage is to despise our being.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Ignorance is the softest pillow on which a man can rest his head.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE My trade and art is to live.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE The beautiful souls are they that are universal, open, and ready for all things.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE I study myself more than any other subject. That is my metaphysics, that is my physics.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE I want death to find me planting my cabbage
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Dying is a very dull, dreary affair. My advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE It is not death that alarms me, but dying.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Death, they say, acquits us of all obligations.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Taking it all in all, I find it is more trouble to watch after money than to get it.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE An untempted woman cannot boast of her chastity.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Man is stark mad; he cannot make a flea, and yet he will be making gods by the dozens.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE 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 g...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Oh senseless man, who cannot possibly make a worm, and yet will make Gods by dozens.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Every abridgement of a good book is a fool abridged.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books, They quickly...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE If a man urge me to tell wherefore I loved him, I feel it cannot be expressed but by answering: Beca...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Nature should have been pleased to have made this age miserable, without making it also ridiculous.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Age imprints more wrinkles in the mind than it does on the face.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE We are great fools: He has spent his life in idleness. We say, I have done nothing today. Really, ...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE My art and profession is to live.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE The finest lives in my opinion are the common model, without miracle and without extravagance.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE All the world knows me in my book, and may book in me.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE We cannot do without it, and yet we disgrace and vilify the same. It may be compared to a cage, the ...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside desperate ...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE If there is such a thing as a good marriage, it is because it resembles friendship rather than love.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE For truly it is to be noted, that children's plays are not sports, and should be deemed as their mos...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE We only labor to stuff the memory, and leave the conscience and the understanding unfurnished and vo...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE In true education, anything that comes to our hand is as good as a book: the prank of a page- boy, t...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Since we cannot attain unto it, let us revenge ourselves with railing against it.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE The strangest, most generous, and proudest of all virtues is true courage.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE How many things served us but yesterday as articles of faith, which today we deem but fables?
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE I quote others only in order the better to express myself.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE One may be humble out of pride.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws, would not...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE I quote others only in order the better to express myself. •Michel De Montaigne Certain br...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE We can be Knowledgeable with other men's knowledge, but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE I listen with attention to the judgement of all men; but so far as I can remember, I have followed n...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE I care not so much what I am to others as what I am to myself. I will be rich by myself, and not by ...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE If you don't know how to die, don't worry; Nature will tell you what to do on the spot, fully and ad...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE There are few men who dare to publish to the world the prayers they make to Almighty God.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE The greater part of the world's troubles are due to questions of grammar.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE I find I am much prouder of the victory I obtain over myself, when, in the very ardor of dispute, I ...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE It is much more easy to accuse the one sex than to excuse the other.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE The most unhappy and frail creatures are men and yet they are the proudest.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Memory is the receptacle and case of science: and therefore mine being so treacherous, if I know lit...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE The memory represents to us not what we choose but what it pleases.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE He who has not a good memory should never take upon himself the trade of lying.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE I was not long since in a company where I was not who of my fraternity brought news of a kind of pil...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE I have never seen a greater monster or miracle than myself.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Men do not know the natural infirmity of their mind: it does nothing but ferret and quest, and keeps...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE No profession or occupation is more pleasing than the military; a profession or exercise both noble ...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE There never was in the world two opinions alike, no more than two hairs or two grains. The most univ...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE 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 my...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Let Nature have her way; she understands her business better than we do.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of the mind is irreparable.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE A wise man sees as much as he ought, not as much as he can.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Scratching is one of nature's sweetest gratifications, and the one nearest at hand.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE I conceive that pleasures are to be avoided if greater pains be the consequence, and pains to be cov...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Philosophy is doubt.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE ...there is no constant existence, neither of our being, nor of the objects. And we, and our judgeme...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Experience has taught me this, that we undo ourselves by impatience. Misfortunes have their life and...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE The weeping of an heir is laughter in disguise.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE The greatest thing in the world is to know how to be self-sufficient.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE I consider myself an average man, except in the fact that I consider myself an average man.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Every man bears the whole stamp of the human condition.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE The word is half his that speaks, and half his that hears it.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE It would be better to have no laws at all, than to have too many.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Laws are often made by fools, and even more often by men who fail in equity because they hate equali...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Laws gain their authority from actual possession and custom: it is perilous to go back to their orig...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Just as in habiliments it is a sign of weakness to wish to make oneself noticeable by some peculiar ...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE But sure there is need of other remedies than dreaming, a weak contention of art against nature.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE The beauty of stature is the only beauty of men.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Socrates thought and so do I that the wisest theory about the gods is no theory at all.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE When I play with my cat, who knows if I am not a pastime for her more than she is to me?
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE True it is that she who escapeth safe and unpolluted from out the school of freedom, giveth more con...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE The confidence in another man's virtue is no light evidence of a man's own, and God willingly favors...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Confidence in another person's virtue is no light evidence of your own.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE There is no pleasure to me without communication: there is not so much as a sprightly thought comes ...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE In my opinion, the most fruitful and natural play of the mind is in conversation. I find it sweeter ...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE It is easier to write an indifferent poem than to understand a good one.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE So it is with minds. Unless you keep them busy with some definite subject that will bridle and contr...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Ambition is not a vice of little people.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Make your educational laws strict and your criminal ones can be gentle; but if you leave youth its l...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Who does not in some sort live to others, does not live much to himself.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE I do myself a greater injury in lying that I do him of whom I tell a lie.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE He who is not very strong in memory should not meddle with lying.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE In plain truth, lying is an accursed vice. We are not men, nor have any other tie upon another, but ...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Lying is a terrible vice, it testifies that one despises God, but fears men.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE All the fame you should look for in life is to have lived it quietly.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Habit is second nature.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE No man is so exquisitely honest or upright in living, but that ten times in his life he might not la...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE The worst of my actions or conditions seem not so ugly unto me as I find it both ugly and base not t...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE My home...It is my retreat and resting place from wars, I try to keep this corner as a haven against...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE I love those historians that are either very simple or most excellent. Such as are between both (whi...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Example is a bright looking-glass, universal and for all shapes to look into.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE It is very easy to accuse a government of imperfection, for all mortal things are full of it.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE To honor him whom we have made is far from honoring him that hath made us..
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE No wind favors him who has no destined port.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE The same reason that makes us chide and brawl and fall out with any of our neighbors, causeth a war ...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE The thing I fear most is fear.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE I know what I am fleeing from, but not what I am in search of.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE There is no passion so contagious as that of fear.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE A little of everything and nothing thoroughly, after the French fashion.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE There is little less trouble in governing a private family than a whole kingdom.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE There is not much less vexation in the government of a private family than in the managing of an ent...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE My life has been filled with terrible misfortune; most of which never happened.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE One may disavow and disclaim vices that surprise us, and whereto our passions transport us; but thos...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Fortune, seeing that she could not make fools wise, has made them lucky.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE It is a common seen by experience that excellent memories do often accompany weak judgments.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE We need very strong ears to hear ourselves judged frankly, and because there are few who can endure ...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Of all the infirmities we have, the most savage is to despise our being.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE It is the part of cowardliness, and not of virtue, to seek to squat itself in some hollow lurking ho...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE I don't break the law* made for crooks, when I take away my own property - thus I am not obliged to ...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Obstinacy is the sister of constancy, at least in vigor and stability.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE There is no course of life so weak and Scottish as that which is ordered by orders, method, and disc...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Have you known how to take rest? You have done more than he who hath taken empires and cities.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE This notion is more clearly understood by asking What do I know?.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE It happens as one sees in cages: the birds who are outside despair of ever getting in, and those wit...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE I find no quality so easy for a man to counterfeit as devotion, though his life and manner are not c...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE It is not the want, but rather abundance that creates avarice.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE The most profound joy has more of gravity than of gaiety in it.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE We endeavor more that men should speak of us, than how and what they speak, and it sufficeth us that...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE The worthiest man to be known, and for a pattern to be presented to the world, he is the man of whom...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE An unattempted lady could not vaunt of her chastity.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Whether you find satisfaction in life depends not on your tale of years, but on your will.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Princes give me sufficiently if they take nothing from me, and do me much good if they do me no hurt...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE The way of the world is to make laws, but follow custom.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE I quote others in order to better express myself.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE The soul which has no fixed purpose in life is lost; to be everywhere, is to be nowhere.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE The great and glorious masterpiece of man is how to live with purpose.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Once you have decided to keep a certain pile, it is no longer yours; for you can't spend it.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE It should be noted that children's games are not merely games. One should regard them as their most ...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrec...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Those who have compared our life to a dream were right.... We sleeping wake, and waking sleep.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE My reason is not framed to bend or stoop: my knees are.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Let us not be ashamed to speak what we shame not to think.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE After mature deliberation of counsel, the good Queen to establish a rule and immutable example unto ...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Few men have been admired of their familiars.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE He who lives not to others, lives little to himself.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Courtesy is a science of the highest importance. It is ... opening a door that we may derive instruc...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE