Michel de Montaigne Quotes

I look upon the too good opinion that man has of himself, as the nursing mother of all false opinions, both public and private.

Beauty is the true prerogative of women, and so peculiarly their own, that our sex, though naturally requiring another sort of feature, is never in its lustre but when puerile and beardless, confused and mixed with theirs.

God might grant us riches, honours, life, and even health, to our own hurt; for every thing that is pleasing to us is not always good for us. If he sends us death, or an increase of sickness, instead of a cure, Vvrga tua et baculus, tuus ipsa me consolata sunt. "Thy rod and thy staff have comforted me," he does it by the rule of his providence, which better and more certainly discerns what is proper for us than we can do; and we ought to take it in good part, as coming from a wise and most friendly hand.

We are more unhappy to see people ahead of us than happy to see people behind us.

There is no virtue which does not rejoice a well-descended nature; there is a kind of I know not what congratulation in well-doing, that gives us an inward satisfaction, and a certain generous boldness that accompanies a good conscience.

The share we have in the knowledge of truth, such as it is, has not been acquired by our own powers. God has taught ushis wonderful secrets; our faith is not of our acquiring, it is purely the gift of another's bounty.

There is nothing useless in nature; not even uselessness itself

Fortune, to show us her power in all things, and to abate our presumption, seeing she could not make fools wise, has made them fortunate.

We easily enough confess in others an advantage of courage, strength, experience, activity, and beauty; but an advantage in judgment we yield to none.

Disappointment and feebleness imprint upon us a cowardly and valetudinarian virtue.

A liar would be brave toward God, while he is a coward toward men; for a lie faces God, and shrinks from man.

There is the name and the thing; the name is a sound which sets a mark on and denotes the thing. The name is no part of the thing nor of the substance; it is an extraneous piece added to the thing, and outside of it.

Tis the taste of effeminacy that disrelishes ordinary and accustomed things.

Whoever will be cured of ignorance, let him confess it.

I quote others in order to better express myself.

There is, nevertheless, a certain respect and a general duty of humanity that ties us, not only to beasts that have life and sense, but even to trees and plants.

Anyone who does not feel sufficiently strong in memory should not meddle with lying.

We should be similarly wary of accepting common opinions; we should judge them by the ways of reason not by popular vote.

There are as many and innumerable degrees of wit, as there are cubits between this and heaven.

The most universal quality is diversity.

The same reason that makes us chide and brawl and fall out with any of our neighbors, causeth a war to follow between Princes.

A man must not always tell all, for that be folly; but what a man says should be what he thinks.

I know that the arms of friendship are long enough to reach from the one end of the world to the other

There is no desire more natural than the desire of knowledge. (Il n'est desir plus naturel que le desir de connaissance)

Let us permit nature to have her way. She understands her business better than we do.

Let us not be ashamed to speak what we shame not to think.

Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.

[Marriage] happens as with cages: the birds without despair to get in, and those within despair of getting out.

When Socrates, after being relieved of his irons, felt the relish of the itching that their weight had caused in his legs, he rejoiced to consider the close alliance between pain and pleasure.

Nothing else but an insatiate thirst of enjoying a greedily desired object.

I study myself more than any other subject. That is my metaphysics, that is my physics.

Nothing prints more lively in our minds than something we wish to forget.

No-one is exempt from speaking nonsense – the only misfortune is to do it solemnly.

Man is quite insane. He wouldn?t know how to create a maggot, and he creates Gods by the dozen.

A woman is no sooner ours than we are no longer hers.

The world always looks straights ahead; as for me, I turn my gaze inward, I fix it there and keep it busy. Everyone looks in front of him: as for me, I look inside me: I have no business but with myself; I continually observe myself, I take stock of myself, I taste myself. Others...they always go forward; as for me, I roll about in myself.

We are all of us richer than we think we are; but we are taught to borrow and to beg, and brought up more to make use of what is another's than of our own.

Order a purge for your brain, it will there be much better employed than upon your stomach.

It is commonly seene by experience, that excellent memories do rather accompany weake judgements.

All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.

All permanent decisions are made in a temporary state of mind.

There is no doubt that Greek and Latin are great and handsome ornaments, but we buy them too dear.

The study of books is a drowsy and feeble exercise which does not warm you up.

Other passions have objects to flatter them, and seem to content and satisfy them for a while; there is power in ambition, pleasure in luxury, and pelf in covetousness; but envy can gain nothing but vexation.

There is indeed a certain sense of gratification when we do a good deed that gives us inward satisfaction, and a generous pride that accompanies a good conscience…These testimonies of a good conscience are pleasant; and such a natural pleasure is very beneficial to us; it is the only payment that can never fail. “On Repentance

We must reserve a back shop all our own entirely free, in which to establish our real liberty and our principal retreat and solitude.

I honor most those to whom I show least honor; and where my soul moves with great alacrity, I forget the proper steps of ceremony.

Intemperance is the plaque of sensuality, and temperance is not its bane but its seasoning.