Michel De Montaigne Quotes
Top 100 wise famous quotes and sayings by Michel De Montaigne
Michel De Montaigne Famous Quotes & Sayings
Discover top inspirational quotes from Michel De Montaigne on Wise Famous Quotes.
Man (in good earnest) is a marvellous vain, fickle, and unstable subject, and on whom it is very hard to form any certain and uniform judgment.
No spirited mind remains within itself; it is always aspiring and going beyond its strength; it has impulses beyond its power of achievement.
In my youth I studied for ostentation; later, a little to gain wisdom; now, for recreation; never for gain.
All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed.
It is indeed the boundary of life, beyond which we are not to pass; which the law of nature has pitched for a limit not to be exceeded.
And truly Philosophy is but sophisticated poetry. Whence do those ancient writers derive all their authority but from the poets?
And if nobody reads me, shall I have wasted my time, when I have beguiled so many idle hours with such pleasant and profitable reflections?
A good marriage (if any there be) refuses the conditions of love and endeavors to present those of amity.
The 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.
There is nothing which so poisons princes as flattery, nor anything whereby wicked men more easily obtain credit and favor with them.
Our religion is made to eradicate vices, instead it encourages them, covers them, and nurtures them.
[Folly never thinks it has enough, even when it obtains what it desires, but Wisdom is happy with what is to hand and is never vexed with itself.]3
If health and a fair day smile upon me, I am a very good fellow; if a corn trouble my toe, I am sullen, out of humor, and inaccessible.
I must accommodate my history to the hour: I may presently change, not only by fortune, but also by intention.
I leaf through books, I do not study them. What I retain of them is something I no longer recognize as anyone else's.
I say that male and female are cast in the same mold; except for education and habits, the difference is not great.
Not only does the wind of accidents stir me according to its blowing, but I am also stirred and troubled by the instability of my attitude.
There is no course of life so weak and sottish as that which is managed by order, method, and discipline.
Arts and sciences are not cast in a mould, but are found and perfected by degrees, by often handling and polishing.
How many quarrels, and how important, has the doubt as to the meaning of this syllable "Hoc" produced for the world!
I moreover affirm that our wisdom itself, and wisest consultations, for the most part commit themselves to the conduct of chance.
I love a gay and sociable wisdom, and shun harshness and austerity in behaviour, holding every surly countenance suspect.
Glory consists of two parts: the one in setting too great a value upon ourselves, and the other in setting too little a value upon others.
Were I to live my life over again, I should live it just as I have done. I neither complain of the past, nor do I fear the future.
If my mind could gain a firm footing, I would not make essays, I would make decisions; but it is always in apprenticeship and on trial.
It is not a mind, it is not a body that we educate, but it is a man, and we must not make two parts of him.
I admire the assurance and confidence everyone has in himself, whereas there is hardly anything I am sure I know or that I dare give my word I can do.
There never were, in the world, two opinions alike, no more than two hairs, or two grains; the most universal quality is diversity.
Is only certain that there is nothing certain, and that nothing is more miserable or more proud than man.Nat. Hist., ii. 7.]
The souls of emperors and cobblers are cast in the same mold. The same reason that makes us wrangle with a neighbor creates a war betwixt princes.