Quotes from Michel de Montaigne

No wind serves him who addresses his voyage to no certain port.

He who does not live in some degree for others, hardly lives for himself.

Oh, what a valiant faculty is hope.

My home...It is my retreat and resting place from wars, I try to keep this corner as a haven against the tempest outside, as I do another corner in my soul.

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.

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

There is a sort of gratification in doing good which makes us rejoice in ourselves.

Whatever is enforced by command is more imputed to him who exacts than to him who performs.

The highest wisdom is continual cheerfulness; such a state, like the region above the moon, is always clear and serene.

No doctor takes pleasure in the health even of his friends.

It is commonly seen by experience that excellent memories do often accompany weak judgements.

Fear, desire, hope still push us on toward the future.

Desire and hope will push us on toward the future.

The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them; a man may live long yet live very little.

There never were two opinions alike in all the world, no more than two hours or two grains: the most universal quality is diversity.

Diogenes was asked what wine he liked best, and he answered, "Somebody else's."

There is no greater enemy to those who would please than expectation.

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to be one's own self

When I religiously confess myself to myself, I find that the best virtue I have has in it some tincture of vice.

The word is half his that speaks, and half his that hears it.

I walk firmer and more secure up hill than down.

I quote others in order to better express my own self.

It's not victory if it doesn't end the war.

The virtue of the soul does not consist in flying high, but in walking orderly.