Those that will combat use and custom by the strict rules of grammar do but jest
Michel de MontaigneWhatever I may be, I want to be elsewhere than on paper. My art and my industry have been employed in making myself good for something; my studies, in teaching me to do, not to write. I have put all my efforts into forming my life. That is my trade and my work.
Michel de MontaigneNature clasps all her creatures in a universal embrace; there is not one of them which she has not plainly furnished with all means necessary to the conservation of its being.
Michel de MontaigneThere is no pleasure to me without communication: there is not so much as a sprightly thought comes into my mind that it does not grieve me to have produced alone, and that I have no one to tell it to.
Michel de MontaigneSocrates and then Archesilaus used to make their pupils speak first; they spoke afterwards. 'Obest plerumque iss discere volunt authoritas eorum qui docent.' [For those who want to learn, the obstacle can often be the authority of those who teach]
Michel de MontaigneLearning is not to be tacked to the mind, but we must fuse and blend them together, not merely giving the mind a slight tincture, but a thorough and perfect dye. And if we perceive no evident change and improvement, it would be better to leave it alone; learning is a dangerous weapon, and apt to wound its master if it be wielded by a feeble hand, and by one not well acquainted with its use.
Michel de MontaigneOh, a friend! How true is that old saying, that the enjoyment of one is sweeter and more necessary than that of the elements of water and fire!
Michel de MontaigneIt takes strong ears indeed to hear ourselves judged frankly, and because there are few who can endure criticism without being stung by it, those who venture to criticize us perform a remarkable act of friendship. For it is a healthy love that will risk wounding or offending in order to profer a benefit.
Michel de MontaigneI do not know whether I would not like much better to have produced one perfectly formed child by intercourse with the muses than by intercourse with my wife.
Michel de MontaigneI am further of opinion that it would be better for us to have [no laws] at all than to have them in so prodigious numbers as we have.
Michel de MontaignePhilosophical discussions habitually make men happy and joyful not frowning and sad.
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 MontaigneJust as in habiliments it is a sign of weakness to wish to make oneself noticeable by some peculiar and unaccustomed fashion, so, in language, the quest for new-fangled phrases and little-known words comes from a puerile and pedantic ambition.
Michel de MontaigneThere are few men who dare to publish to the world the prayers they make to Almighty God.
Michel de MontaigneHe that first likened glory to a shadow did better than he was aware of. They are both of them things excellently vain. Glory also, like a shadow, goes sometimes before the body, and sometimes in length infinitely exceeds it.
Michel de MontaigneWhenever a new finding is reported to the world people say - It is probably not true. Later on, when the reliability of a new finding has been fully confirmed, people say - OK, it may be true but it has no real significance. At last, when even the significance of the finding is obvious to everybody, people say - Well, it might have some significance, but the idea is not new.
Michel de MontaigneTo die is not to play a part in society; it is the act of a single person. Let us live and laugh among our friends; let us die and sulk among strangers.
Michel de MontaigneLaws gain their authority from actual possession and custom: it is perilous to go back to their origins; laws, like our rivers, get greater and nobler as they roll along: follow them back upstream to their sources and all you find is a tiny spring, hardly recognizable; as time goes by it swells with pride and grows in strength.
Michel de MontaigneThere is power in ambition, pleasure in luxury...but envy can gain nothing but vexation.
Michel de MontaigneThere is as much difference between us and ourselves as there is between us and others.
Michel de MontaigneThe thing in the world I am most afraid of is fear, and with good reason; that passion alone, in the trouble of it, exceeding all other accidents
Michel de MontaigneWhether the events in our life are good or bad, greatly depends on the way we perceive them.
Michel de MontaigneAn ancient father says that a dog we know is better company than a man whose language we do not understand.
Michel de MontaigneWe wake sleeping, and sleep waking. I do not see so clearly in my sleep; but as to my being awake, I never found it clear enough and free from clouds.
Michel de MontaigneI write to keep from going mad from the contradictions I find among mankind - and to work some of those contradictions out for myself.
Michel de MontaigneMarriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside equally desperate to get out.
Michel de MontaigneEach man calls barbarism whatever is not his own practice; for indeed it seems we have no other test of truth and reason than the example and pattern of the opinions and customs of the country we live in
Michel de MontaigneIs it reasonable that even the arts should take advantage of and profit by our natural stupidity and feebleness of mind?
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 MontaigneI enjoy books as misers enjoy treasures, because I know I can enjoy them whenever I please.
Michel de Montaigne