Others form man; I tell of him, and portray a particular one, very ill-formed, whom I should really make very different from whathe is if I had to fashion him over again. But now it is done.
Michel de MontaigneOnce you have decided to keep a certain pile, it is no longer yours; for you can't spend it.
Michel de MontaigneIf faces were not alike, we could not distinguish men from beasts; if they were not different, we could not tell one man from another.
Michel de MontaigneIf these Essays were worthy of being judged, it might fall out, in my opinion, that they would not find much favour, either with common and vulgar minds, or with uncommon and eminent ones: the former would not find enough in them, the latter would find too much; they might manage to live somewhere in the middle region.
Michel de Montaigne