We every day and every hour say things of another that we might more properly say of ourselves, could we but apply our observations to our own concerns.
Michel de MontaigneIs there a polity better ordered, the offices better distributed, and more inviolably observed and maintained, than that of bees?
Michel de MontaigneThere is no desire more natural than the desire of knowledge. (Il n'est desir plus naturel que le desir de connaissance)
Michel de MontaigneMen do not know the natural infirmity of their mind: it does nothing but ferret and quest, and keeps incessantly whirling around, building up and becoming entangled in its own work, like silkworms, and is suffocated in it. A mouse in a pitch barrel...thinks it notices from a distance some sort of glimmer of imaginary light and truth; but while running toward it, it is crossed by so many difficulties and obstacles, and diverted by so many new quests, that it strays from the road, bewildered.
Michel de Montaigne