Montaigne Quotes

Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself. — Michel De Montaigne

It is an absolute perfection ... to get the very most out of one's individuality. — Michel De Montaigne

No one is exempt from talking nonsense; the misfortune is to do it solemnly — Michel De Montaigne

To paraphrase Montaigne - even when you're sitting on the highest throne in the world, you're still sitting on your arse. — M.J. Carter

I myself am more ready to distort a fine saying in order to patch it on to me than to distort the thread of my argument to go in search of one. [A] — Michel De Montaigne

There is no so wretched and coarse a soul wherein some particular faculty is not seen to shine. — Michel De Montaigne

What hits you affects you and wakes you up more then what pleases you. — Michel De Montaigne

Rejoice in the things that are present; all else is beyond thee. — Michel De Montaigne

Once conform, once do what others do because they do it, and a kind of lethargy steals over all the finer senses of the soul. — Michel De Montaigne

Though we may be learned by another's knowledge, we can never be wise but by our own experience. — Michel De Montaigne

Rash and incessant scolding runs into custom and renders itself despised. — Michel De Montaigne

The thing I fear most is fear. — Michel De Montaigne

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. — Michel De Montaigne

I speak the truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare; and I dare a little more as I grow older. — Michel De Montaigne

For truly it is to be noted, that children's plays are not sports, and should be deemed as their most serious actions. — Michel De Montaigne

The conduct of our lives is the true mirror of our doctrine. — Michel De Montaigne

The plague of man is the opinion of knowledge. That is why ignorance is so recommended by our religion as a quality suitable to belief and obedience. — Michel De Montaigne

There is as much difference between us and ourselves as there is between us and others. — Michel De Montaigne

There is nothing on which men are commonly more intent than on making a way for their opinions. — Michel De Montaigne

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. — Michel De Montaigne

I speak to the paper, as I speak to the first person I meet. — Michel De Montaigne

Friendship is a creature formed for a companionship not for a herd. — Michel De Montaigne

Gentleness and repose are paramount to everything else in woman. — Michel De Montaigne

One should be ever booted and spurred and ready to depart. — Michel De Montaigne

As far as I am concerned, no road that would lead us to health is either arduous or expensive. — Michel De Montaigne

Fie on the eloquence that leaves us craving itself, not things! — Michel De Montaigne

We only labor to stuff the memory, and leave the conscience and the understanding unfurnished and void. — Michel De Montaigne

Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul — Michel De Montaigne

Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the mind as the wish to forget it. — Michel De Montaigne

Whatever can be done another day can be done today. — Michel De Montaigne

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. — Michel De Montaigne

A well-bred man is always sociable and complaisant. — Michel De Montaigne

The sage says that all that is under heaven incurs the same law and the same fate. — Michel De Montaigne

A man must always study, but he must not always go to school: what a contemptible thing is an old abecedarian! — Michel De Montaigne

Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens. — Michel De Montaigne

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

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. — Michel De Montaigne

Man in sooth is a marvellous, vain, fickle, and unstable subject. — Michel De Montaigne

I quote others in order to better express myself. — Michel De Montaigne

All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me. — Michel De Montaigne

It is fear that I am most afraid of. — Michel De Montaigne

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

It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others. — Michel De Montaigne

We call comeliness a mischance in the first respect, which belongs principally to the face. — Michel De Montaigne

Death is not one of our social managements; it is a scene with one character. — Michel De Montaigne

In plain truth, lying is an accursed vice. We are not men, nor have any other tie upon another, but by our word. — Michel De Montaigne

I see this evident, that we willingly accord to piety only the services that flatter our passions. — Michel De Montaigne

Report followeth not all goodness, except difficulty and rarity be joined thereto. — Michel De Montaigne

Even opinion is of force enough to make itself to be espoused at the expense of life. — Michel De Montaigne

I find that the best virtue I have has in it some tincture of vice. — Michel De Montaigne

No pleasure is fully delightful without communications, and no delight absolute except imparted. — Michel De Montaigne

Whoever believes anything esteems that it is a work of charity to persuade another of it. — Michel De Montaigne

Reason has so many forms that we do not know which to choose-Experiment has no fewer. — Michel De Montaigne

If there is such a thing as a good marriage, it is because it resembles friendship rather than love. — Michel De Montaigne

All passions that suffer themselves to be relished and digested are but moderate. — Michel De Montaigne

The archer who overshoots his mark does no better than he who falls short of it. — Michel De Montaigne

Lying is a terrible vice, it testifies that one despises God, but fears men. — Michel De Montaigne

Certainly, if he still has himself, a man of understanding has lost nothing. — Michel De Montaigne

I will follow the good side right to the fire, but not into it if I can help it. — Michel De Montaigne

In love, 'tis no other than frantic desire for that which flies from us. — Michel De Montaigne

I love a gay and sociable wisdom, and shun harshness and austerity in behaviour, holding every surly countenance suspect. — Michel De Montaigne

Women when they marry buy a cat in the bag. — Michel De Montaigne

The laws of conscience, though we ascribe them to nature, actually come from custom. — Michel De Montaigne

The truth of these days is not that which really is, but what every man persuades another man to believe. — Michel De Montaigne

Every man may speak truly, but to speak methodically, prudently, and fully is a talent that few men have. — Michel De Montaigne

From Obedience and submission comes all our virtues, and all sin is comes from self-opinion. — Michel De Montaigne

Everyone gives the title of barbarism to everything that is not in use in his own country. — Michel De Montaigne

I moreover affirm that our wisdom itself, and wisest consultations, for the most part commit themselves to the conduct of chance. — Michel De Montaigne

It is the rule of rules, and the general law of all laws, that every person should observe those of the place where he is. — Michel De Montaigne

It is not my deeds that I write down, it is myself, my essence. — Michel De Montaigne

Why did I love her? Because it was her; because it was me. — Michel De Montaigne

No pleasure has any savor for me without communication. — Michel De Montaigne

The beauty of stature is the only beauty of men. — Michel De Montaigne

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

Decency, not to dare to do that in public which it is decent enough to do in private. — Michel De Montaigne

To smell, though well, is to stink. — Michel De Montaigne

My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened. — Michel De Montaigne

We seek and offer ourselves to be gulled. — Michel De Montaigne

Every movement reveals us. — Michel De Montaigne

Necessity is a violent school-mistress. — Michel De Montaigne

There is a certain amount of purpose, acquiescence, and satisfaction in nursing one's melancholy. — Michel De Montaigne

There are some defeats more triumphant than victories. — Michel De Montaigne

Habituation puts to sleep the eye of our judgment. — Michel De Montaigne

As for me, then, I love life and cultivate it just as God has been pleased to grant it to us. — Michel De Montaigne

The most fruitful and natural exercise for our minds is, in my opinion, conversation. — Michel De Montaigne

If I speak of myself in different ways, that is because I look at myself in different ways. — Michel De Montaigne

As Michel de Montaigne observed, "No wind favors him who has no destined port. — John C. Maxwell

Get a purge for your brain. It will do better than for your stomach. - Michel Eyquem de Montaigne — David Allen

Let every foot have its own shoe. — Michel De Montaigne

Learned we may be with another man's learning: we can only be wise with wisdom of our own. — Michel De Montaigne

The reverse side of truth has a hundred thousand shapes and no defined limits. — Michel De Montaigne

The day of your birth leads you to death as well as to life . — Michel De Montaigne

Those who have compared our life to a dream were right ... we were sleeping wake, and waking sleep. — Michel De Montaigne

When I quote others I do so in order to express my own ideas more clearly. — Michel De Montaigne

How many quarrels, and how important, has the doubt as to the meaning of this syllable "Hoc" produced for the world! — Michel De Montaigne

Fear sometimes adds wings to the heels, and sometimes nails them to the ground, and fetters them from moving. — Michel De Montaigne

Dreams are faithful interpreters of our inclinations; but there is art required to sort and understand them. — Michel De Montaigne

Things are not bad in themselves, but our cowardice makes them so. — Michel De Montaigne

I set forth notions that are human and my own, simply as human notions considered in themselves, not as determined and decreed by heavenly ordinance. — Michel De Montaigne

Obstinacy and contention are common qualities, most appearing in, and best becoming, a mean and illiterate soul. — Michel De Montaigne