Men throw themselves on foreign assistances to spare their own, which, after all, are the only certain and sufficient ones.
Michel de MontaigneThe human face is a weak guarantee; yet it deserves some consideration. And if I had to whip the wicked, I would do so more severely to those who belied and betrayed the promises that nature had implanted on their brows; I would punish malice more harshly when it was hidden under a kindly appearance.
Michel de MontaigneI look upon the too good opinion that man has of himself, as the nursing mother of all false opinions, both public and private.
Michel de MontaigneIt is indeed the boundary of life, beyond which we are not to pass; which the law of nature has pitched for a limit not to be exceeded.
Michel de MontaigneThere is no passion that so much transports men from their right judgments as anger. No one would demur upon punishing a judge with death who should condemn a criminal upon the account of his own choler; why then should fathers and pedants be any more allowed to whip and chastise children in their anger? It is then no longer correction bat revenge. Chastisement is instead of physic to children; and should we suffer a physician who should be animated against and enraged at his patient?
Michel de Montaigne