Best Quotes by Michel de Montaigne (Top 10)
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The most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness.
Michel de Montaigne
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The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.
Michel de Montaigne
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I quote others only in order the better to express myself.
Michel de Montaigne
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When I am attached by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind.
Michel de Montaigne
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He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.
Michel de Montaigne
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If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I was I.
Michel de Montaigne
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Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it.
Michel de Montaigne
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There is nothing more notable in Socrates than that he found time, when he was an old man, to learn music and dancing, and thought it time well spent.
Michel de Montaigne
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Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.
Michel de Montaigne
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I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.
Michel de Montaigne
More Michel de Montaigne Quotes
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Man is certainly crazy. He could not make a mite, and he makes gods by the dozen.
Michel de Montaigne
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Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself.
Michel de Montaigne
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The most fruitful and natural exercise for our minds is, in my opinion, conversation.
Michel de Montaigne
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If there is such a thing as a good marriage, it is because it resembles friendship rather than love.
Michel de Montaigne
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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
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The greater part of the world's troubles are due to questions of grammar.
Michel de Montaigne
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Confidence in others' honesty is no light testimony of one's own integrity.
Michel de Montaigne
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My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened.
Michel de Montaigne
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The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them... Whether you find satisfaction in life depends not on your tale of years, but on your will.
Michel de Montaigne
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He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak.
Michel de Montaigne
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Every man bears the whole stamp of the human condition.
Michel de Montaigne
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There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees.
Michel de Montaigne
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Ignorance is the softest pillow on which a man can rest his head.
Michel de Montaigne
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A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears.
Michel de Montaigne
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Stubborn and ardent clinging to one's opinion is the best proof of stupidity.
Michel de Montaigne
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No wind favors he who has no destined port.
Michel de Montaigne
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I have never seen a greater monster or miracle in the world than myself.
Michel de Montaigne
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No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately.
Michel de Montaigne
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Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.
Michel de Montaigne
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There is as much difference between us and ourselves as there is between us and others.
Michel de Montaigne
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I listen with attention to the judgment of all men;but so far as I can remember,I have followed none but my own.
Michel de Montaigne
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A good marriage would be between a blind wife and a deaf husband.
Michel de Montaigne
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The thing I fear most is fear.
Michel de Montaigne
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Don't discuss yourself, for you are bound to lose; if you belittle yourself, you are believed; if you praise yourself, you are disbelieved.
Michel de Montaigne
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So it is with minds. Unless you keep them busy with some definite subject that will bridle and control them, they throw themselves in disorder hither and yon in the vague field of imagination... And there is no mad or idle fancy that they do not bring forth in the agitation.
Michel de Montaigne
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Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul.
Michel de Montaigne
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The finest souls are those that have the most variety and suppleness.
Michel de Montaigne
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Age imprints more wrinkles in the mind than it does on the face.
Michel de Montaigne
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The soul which has no fixed purpose in life is lost; to be everywhere, is to be nowhere.
Michel de Montaigne
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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
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The most profound joy has more of gravity than of gaiety in it.
Michel de Montaigne
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How many things we held yesterday as articles of faith which today we tell as fables.
Michel de Montaigne
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It is only certain that there is nothing certain, and that nothing is more miserable or more proud than man.
Michel de Montaigne
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No wind serves him who addresses his voyage to no certain port.
Michel de Montaigne
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The beautiful souls are they that are universal, open, and ready for all things.
Michel de Montaigne
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Rejoice in the things that are present; all else is beyond thee.
Michel de Montaigne
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Whoever will be cured of ignorance, let him confess it.
Michel de Montaigne
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Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside equally desperate to get out.
Michel de Montaigne
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Wise men have more to learn of fools than fools of wise men.
Michel de Montaigne
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Those who have compared our life to a dream were right... we were sleeping wake, and waking sleep.
Michel de Montaigne
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We only labor to stuff the memory, and leave the conscience and the understanding unfurnished and void.
Michel de Montaigne
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It should be noted that children at play are not playing about; their games should be seen as their most serious-minded activity.
Michel de Montaigne
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It is the mind that maketh good or ill, That maketh wretch or happy, rich or poor.
Michel de Montaigne
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If you don't know how to die, don't worry; Nature will tell you what to do on the spot, fully and adequately. She will do this job perfectly for you; don't bother your head about it.
Michel de Montaigne
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Experience has taught me this, that we undo ourselves by impatience. Misfortunes have their life and their limits, their sickness and their health.
Michel de Montaigne
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When I play with my cat, who knows whether she is not amusing herself with me more than I with her.
Michel de Montaigne
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The ceaseless labour of your life is to build the house of death.
Michel de Montaigne
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A wise man sees as much as he ought, not as much as he can.
Michel de Montaigne
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There is no passion so contagious as that of fear.
Michel de Montaigne
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The confidence in another man's virtue is no light evidence of a man's own, and God willingly favors such a confidence.
Michel de Montaigne
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There is no passion so much transports the sincerity of judgment as doth anger
Michel de Montaigne
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I will follow the right side even to the fire, but excluding the fire if I can.
Michel de Montaigne
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No-one is exempt from speaking nonsense " the only misfortune is to do it solemnly.
Michel de Montaigne
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One may be humble out of pride.
Michel de Montaigne
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No man is so exquisitely honest or upright in living, but that ten times in his life he might not lawfully be hanged.
Michel de Montaigne
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A wise man never loses anything, if he has himself.
Michel de Montaigne
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Let us permit nature to have her way. She understands her business better than we do.
Michel de Montaigne
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We are, I know not how, double in ourselves, so that what we believe we disbelieve, and cannot rid ourselves of what we condemn .
Michel de Montaigne
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Ambition is not a vice of little people.
Michel de Montaigne
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The great and glorious masterpiece of humanity is to know how to live with a purpose.
Michel de Montaigne
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There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.
Michel de Montaigne
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Even on the highest throne in the world, we are still sitting on our ass.
Michel de Montaigne
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Experience teaches that a strong memory is generally joined to a weak judgment.
Michel de Montaigne
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Desire and hope will push us on toward the future.
Michel de Montaigne
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The word is half his that speaks, and half his that hears it.
Michel de Montaigne
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There never were, in the world, two opinions alike, no more than two hairs, or two grains; the most universal quality is diversity.
Michel de Montaigne
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Fame and tranquility can never be bedfellows.
Michel de Montaigne
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We are all of us richer than we think we are.
Michel de Montaigne
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All the fame you should look for in life is to have lived it quietly.
Michel de Montaigne
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Confidence in the goodness of another is good proof of one's own goodness.
Michel de Montaigne
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When all is summed up, a man never speaks of himself without loss; his accusations of himself are always believed; his praises never.
Michel de Montaigne
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There is no course of life so weak and sottish as that which is managed by order, method, and discipline
Michel de Montaigne
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Since we cannot match it let us take our revenge by abusing it.
Michel de Montaigne
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Those that will combat use and custom by the strict rules of grammar do but jest
Michel de Montaigne
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There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.
Michel de Montaigne
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Wonder is the foundation of all philosophy, inquiry the progress, ignorance the end.
Michel de Montaigne
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There are few men who dare to publish to the world the prayers they make to Almighty God.
Michel de Montaigne
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It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others.
Michel de Montaigne
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Of all our infirmities, the most savage is to despise our being.
Michel de Montaigne
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Necessity reconciles and brings men together; and this accidental connection afterward forms itself into laws.
Michel de Montaigne
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I care not so much what I am to others as what I am to myself. I will be rich by myself, and not by borrowing.
Michel de Montaigne
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It's not victory if it doesn't end the war.
Michel de Montaigne
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We can be knowledgeable with other men's knowledge, but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom.
Michel de Montaigne
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It is easier to write an indifferent poem than to understand a good one.
Michel de Montaigne
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The public weal requires that men should betray, and lie, and massacre.
Michel de Montaigne
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It is commonly seen by experience that excellent memories do often accompany weak judgements.
Michel de Montaigne
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In the education of children there is nothing like alluring the interest and affection; otherwise you only make so many asses laden with books.
Michel de Montaigne
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I consider myself an average man, except in the fact that I consider myself an average man.
Michel de Montaigne
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He who is not sure of his memory, should not undertake the trade of lying.
Michel de Montaigne