If not for that of conscience, yet at least for ambition's sake, let us reject ambition, let us disdain that thirst of honor and renown, so low and mendicant; that it makes us beg it of all sorts of people.
Michel de MontaigneA person is bound to lose when he talks about himself; if he belittles himself, he is believed; if he praises himself, he isn't believed.
Michel de MontaigneIf people must be talking about me, I would have it to be truthfully and justly. I would willingly return from the next world to contradict any person who described me other than I was, although he did it to honour me.
Michel de MontaigneI want death to find me planting my cabbages, but careless of death, and still more of my unfinished garden.
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 Montaigne