Quotes from Michel de Montaigne

There is power in ambition, pleasure in luxury...but envy can gain nothing but vexation.

We have power over nothing except our will.

There are few men who dare to publish to the world the prayers they make to Almighty God.

The Ancient Mariner said to Neptune during a great storm "O God you will save me if you wish but I am going to go on holding my tiller straight."

To honor him whom we have made is far from honoring him that hath made us.

Oh these foolish men! They could not create so much as a worm, but they create gods by the dozens.

A man should not so much respect what he eats, as with whom he eats.

I have never seen a greater monster or miracle in the world than myself.

All other knowledge is hurtful to him who has not honesty and good-nature

O human creature,you are the investigator without knowledge, the magistrate without jurisdiction, and all in all, the fool of the farce.

The worst condition of humans is when they lose knowledge and control of themselves.

There is no desire more natural than the desire of knowledge. (Il n'est desir plus naturel que le desir de connaissance)

We can be knowledgeable with another man's knowledge, but we can't be wise with another man's wisdom.

I leaf through books, I do not study them. What I retain of them is something I no longer recognize as anyone else's.

I seek in books only to give myself pleasure by honest amusement; or if I study, I seek only the learning that treats of the knowledge of myself and instructs me in how to die well and live well.

My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened.

~The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them ~

I know well what I am fleeing from but not what I am in search of.

It is not death, it is dying that alarms me.

We are more unhappy to see people ahead of us than happy to see people behind us.

It is only certain that there is nothing certain, and that nothing is more miserable or more proud than man.

The bitterness of the potion, and the abhorrence of the patient are necessary circumstances to the operation. It must be something to trouble and disturb the stomach that must purge and cure it.

Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.

The pleasantest things in the world are pleasant thoughts, and the great art of life is to have as many of them as possible.