Quotes from Michel de Montaigne

D'autant que nous avons cher, estre, et estre consiste en mouvement et action.

I love to discourse and dispute, but it is with but few men, and for myself; for to do it as a spectacle and entertainment to great persons, and to make of a man's wit and words competitive parade is, in my opinion, very unbecoming a man of honor.

The shortest way to arrive at glory should be to do that for conscience which we do for glory.

Il n'est rien qui tente mes larmes que les larmes.

Les naturels sanguinaires à l'endroit des bestes, tesmoignent une propension naturelle à la cruauté.

the property of Man's wit to act readily and quickly, while the property of the judgement is to be slow and poised.

Nature a, (ce crains-je) elle mesme attaché à l'homme quelque instinct à l'inhumanité

To die of age is a rare, singular, and extraordinary death

have seen no other effects in rods but to make children's minds more remiss or more maliciously headstrong.

O Ruler of Olympus, why did it please thee to add more care to worried mortals by letting them learn of future slaughters by means of cruel omens! Whatever thou hast in store, do it unexpectedly; let the minds of men be blind to their future fate: let him who fears, still cling to hope!]

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to live to yourself.

Most of our desires are born and nurtured at other people's expense.

If the original essence of the thing which we fear could confidently lodge itself within us by its own authority it would be the same in all men. For all men are of the same species and, in varying degrees, are all furnished with the same conceptual tools and instruments of judgement.

In marriage, alliances and money rightly weigh at least as much as attractiveness and beauty.

I consider myself an average person, except for the fact that I consider myself an average person.

I had rather my son should learn in a tan-house to speak, than in the schools to prate.

In nine lifetimes, you'll never know as much about your cat as your cat knows about you.

So much din from so many philosophical brainboxes! Trust in your philosophy now! Boast that you are the one who has found the lucky bean in your festive pudding!

That philosopher who orders us to conceal ourselves and to care for no one but ourselves and who wishes us to remain unknown to others, wants us even less to be held in honour and glory by them. He also advised Idomeneus in no wise to govern his actions by reputation or by common opinion, except to avoid such incidental disadvantages as the contempt of men might bring him.10 Those words are infinitely true, in my opinion, and are reasonable.

In my country, and in my time, learning improves fortunes enough, but not minds; if it meet with those that are dull and heavy, it overcharges and suffocates them, leaving them a crude and undigested mass; if airy and fine, it purifies, clarifies, and subtilizes them, even to exinanition.

there is nothing wherein the force of a horse is so much seen as in a round and sudden stop.

All of the days go toward death and the last one arrives there.

Neither good nor ill is done to us by Fortune: she merely offers us the matter and the seeds: our soul, more powerful than she is, can mould it or sow them as she pleases, being the only cause and mistress of our happy state or our unhappiness.

Tis my humor as much to regard the form as the substance, and the advocate as much as the cause, as Alcibiades ordered we should: and every day pass away my time in reading authors without any consideration of their learning; their manner is what I look after, not their subject. And just so do I hunt after the conversation of any eminent wit, not that he may teach me, but that I may know him, and that knowing him, if I think him worthy of imitation, I may imitate him.