Quotes from Michel Montaigne

To distract myself from tiresome thoughts, I have only to resort to books; they easily draw my mind to themselves and away from other things.

One must be a little foolish if one does not want to be even more stupid.

Many things that I would not care to tell to any individual man I tell to the public, and for knowledge of my most secret thoughts I refer my most loyal friends to a bookseller's stall.

All the wisdom and reasoning in the world do in the end conclude in this point, to teach us not to fear to die.

Nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know.

No one is exempt from talking nonsense; the misfortune is to do it solemnly.

To make a crooked stick straight, we bend it the contrary way.

There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.

There is little less trouble in governing a private family than a whole kingdom.