Since we cannot be universal and know all that is to be known of everything, we ought to know a little about everything. For it is far better to know something about everything than to know all about one thing. This universality is the best. If we can have both, still better; but if we must choose, we ought to choose the former.

Anyone who does not see the vanity of the world is very vain himself. So who does not see it, apart from young people whose lives are all noise, diversions, and thoughts for the future? But take away their diversion and you will see them bored to extinction. Then they feel their nullity without recognizing it, for nothing could be more wretched than to be intolerably depressed as soon as one is reduced to introspection with no means of diversion.

If a man is not made for God, why is he happy only in God?

Noble deeds that are concealed are most esteemed.

It's not those who write the laws that have the greatest impact on society. It's those who write the songs.

It is not in Montaigne, but in myself, that I find all that I see in him.

Good deeds, when concealed, are the most admirable.