Business in a certain sort of men is a mark of understanding, and they are honored for it. Their souls seek repose in agitation, as children do by being rocked in a cradle. They may pronounce themselves as serviceable to their friends as troublesome to themselves. No one distributes his money to others, but every one therein distributes his time and his life. There is nothing of which we are so prodigal as of those two things, of which to be thrifty would be both commendable and useful.
Michel de MontaigneTrue it is that she who escapeth safe and unpolluted from out the school of freedom, giveth more confidence of herself than she who comet sound out of the school of severity and restraint.
Michel de MontaigneAdrian, the Emperor, exclaimed incessantly, when dying, "That the crowd of physicians had killed him."
Michel de MontaigneThe first lessons with which we should irrigate his mind should be those which teach him to know himself, and to know how to die ... and to live.
Michel de MontaigneThe desire for riches is more sharpened by their use than by their need. Pleasing all: a mark that can never be aimed at or hit.
Michel de MontaigneTo divert myself from a troublesome fancy, it is but to run to my books; they presently fix me to them, and drive the other out of my thoughts, and do not mutiny to see that I have only recourse to them for want of other more, real, natural, and lively conveniences; they always receive me with the same kindness.
Michel de Montaigne