Michel de montaigne quotes

Learning is a good medicine: but no medicine is powerful enough to preserve itself from taint and corruption independently of defects in the jar that it is kept in. One man sees clearly but does not see straight: consequently he sees what is good but fails to follow it; he sees knowledge and does not use it.

Confidence in the goodness of another is good proof of one's own goodness.

God might grant us riches, honours, life, and even health, to our own hurt; for every thing that is pleasing to us is not always good for us. If he sends us death, or an increase of sickness, instead of a cure, Vvrga tua et baculus, tuus ipsa me consolata sunt. "Thy rod and thy staff have comforted me," he does it by the rule of his providence, which better and more certainly discerns what is proper for us than we can do; and we ought to take it in good part, as coming from a wise and most friendly hand.

Death pays all debts.

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

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.

The most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness.

Sometimes it is a good choice not to choose at all.

The soul which has no fixed purpose in life is lost; to be everywhere, is to be nowhere.

When I quote others I do so in order to express my own ideas more clearly.

Age imprints more wrinkles in the mind than it does on the face.

It takes strong ears indeed to hear ourselves judged frankly, and because there are few who can endure criticism without being stung by it, those who venture to criticize us perform a remarkable act of friendship. For it is a healthy love that will risk wounding or offending in order to profer a benefit.

Fame and tranquility can never be bedfellows.

The most fruitful and natural exercise for our minds is, in my opinion, conversation.

The man who thinks he knows does not yet know what knowing is

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.

The plague of man is the opinion of knowledge. That is why ignorance is so recommended by our religion as a quality suitable to belief and obedience.

Experience has taught me this, that we undo ourselves by impatience. Misfortunes have their life and their limits, their sickness and their health.

Stubborn and ardent clinging to one's opinion is the best proof of stupidity.

I had rather complain of ill-fortune than be ashamed of victory.

Obsession is the wellspring of genius and madness.

There is as much difference between us and ourselves as there is between us and others.

If you have known how to compose your life, you have done a great deal more than the person who knows how to compose a book. You have done more than the one who has taken cities and empires.

The truth of these days is not that which really is, but what every man persuades another man to believe.

Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside equally desperate to get out.

There is nothing of evil in life for him who rightly comprehends that death is no evil; to know how to die delivers us from all subjection and constraint.

Honesty is a question of right and wrong, not a matter of policy

I consider myself an average man, except in the fact that I consider myself an average man.

Don't be afraid to say what you are not afraid to think

Wise people are foolish if they cannot adapt to foolish people.

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.

Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.

He that is a friend to himself, know; he is a friend to all.

I would rather be an expert on me than on Cicero

Make your educational laws strict and your criminal ones can be gentle; but if you leave youth its liberty you will have to dig dungeons for ages.

I study myself more than any other subject. That is my metaphysics, that is my physics.

True freedom is to have power over oneself for everything.

In my opinion, the most fruitful and natural play of the mind is conversation. I find it sweeter than any other action in life; and if I were forced to choose, I think I would rather lose my sight than my hearing and voice. The study of books is a drowsy and feeble exercise which does not warm you up.

Rejoice in the things that are present; all else is beyond thee.

He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak.

Only the fools are certain and assured.

To compose our character is our duty, not to compose books, and to win, not battles and provinces, but order and tranquility in our conduct. Our great and glorious masterpiece is to live appropriately. All other things, ruling, hoarding, building, are only little appendages and props, at most.

To begin depriving death of its greatest advantage over us, let us adopt a way clean contrary to that common one; let us deprive death of its strangeness, let us frequent it, let us get used to it; let us have nothing more often in mind than death... We do not know where death awaits us: so let us wait for it everywhere." "To practice death is to practice freedom. A man who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave.

A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears.

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

There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees.

On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.

There is no more expensive thing than a free gift.

All permanent decisions are made in a temporary state of mind.

The most regular and most perfect soul in the world has but too much to do to keep itself upright from being overthrown by its own weakness.

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.

We trouble our life by thoughts about death, and our death by thoughts about life.

I would rather be old for a shorter time than be old before my time.

I quote others only in order the better to express myself.

The good opinion of the vulgar is injurious.

Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of soul, impossible.

Obstinacy and dogmatism are the surest signs of stupidity. Is there anything more confident, resolute, disdainful, grave and serious than an ass?

The wise man lives as long as he ought, not so long as he can.

Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself.

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

If falsehood, like truth, had but one face, we would be more on equal terms. For we would consider the contrary of what the liar said to be certain. But the opposite of truth has a hundred thousand faces and an infinite field.

A wise man never loses anything, if he has himself.

No-one is exempt from speaking nonsense – the only misfortune is to do it solemnly.

The beautiful souls are they that are universal, open, and ready for all things.

It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others.

We must learn to endure what we cannot avoid. Our life is composed, like the harmony of the world, of contrary things, also of different tones, sweet and harsh, sharp and flat, soft and loud. If a musician liked only one kind, what would he have to say?

I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.

Lying is a terrible vice, it testifies that one despises God, but fears men.

Truly it is reasonable to make a great distinction between the faults that come from our weakness and those that come from our wickedness.

We commend a horse for his strength, and sureness of foot, and not for his rich caparisons; a greyhound for his share of heels, not for his fine collar; a hawk for her wing, not for her jesses and bells. Why, in like manner, do we not value a man for what is properly his own? He has a great train, a beautiful palace, so much credit, so many thousand pounds a year, and all these are about him, but not in him.

Ignorance is the softest pillow on which a man can rest his head.

Men are tormented by the opinions they have of things, and not the things themselves.

If others examined themselves attentively, as I do, they would find themselves, as I do, full of inanity and nonsense. Get rid of it I cannot without getting rid of myself.

Don't discuss yourself, for you are bound to lose; if you belittle yourself, you are believed; if you praise yourself, you are disbelieved.

I do not teach. I relate.

Happiness involves working toward meaningful goals.

No one but yourself knows whether you are cowardly and cruel, or loyal and devout; others do not see you; they surmise you by uncertain conjectures; they perceive not so much your nature as your art.

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

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

The only thing certain is nothing is certain.

Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it.

A man must always study, but he must not always go to school: what a contemptible thing is an old abecedarian!

A man is not hurt so much by what happens, as by his opinion of what happens.

We are all of us richer than we think we are; but we are taught to borrow and to beg, and brought up more to make use of what is another's than of our own.

Other people do not see you at all, but guess at you by uncertain conjectures.

A man must become wise at his own expense.

Life itself is neither a good nor an evil: life is where good or evil find a place, depending on how you make it for them.

Courtesy is a science of the highest importance. It is...opening a door that we may derive instruction from the example of others, and at the same time enabling us to benefit them by our example, if there be anything in our character worthy of imitation.

Every movement reveals us.

Socrates thought and so do I that the wisest theory about the gods is no theory at all.

Wise men have more to learn of fools than fools of wise men.

I know that the arms of friendship are long enough to reach from the one end of the world to the other

Love is like playing the piano. First you must learn to play by the rules, then you must forget the rules and play from your heart. If I were pressed to say why I loved him, I feel that my only reply could be: Because it was he, because it was I.

Every man has within himself the entire human condition

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

Man is quite insane. He wouldn?t know how to create a maggot, and he creates Gods by the dozen.

Speaking is half his that speaks, and half his that hears.

Women are more susceptible to pain than to pleasure.

There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.

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.

It is not necessity but abundance which produces greed.

We need to interpret interpretations more than to interpret things.

When we have got it, we want something else.

Kings and philosophers defecate, and so do ladies.

Though we may be learned by another's knowledge, we can never be wise but by our own experience.

A man must keep a little back shop where he can be himself without reserve. In solitude alone can he know true freedom.

As soon as women become ours we are no longer theirs.

I neither complain of the past, nor do I fear the future.

If there is such a thing as a good marriage, it is because it resembles friendship rather than love.

Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul.

My art and profession is to live.

Nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know.

I want death to find me planting my cabbages, but careless of death, and still more of my unfinished garden.

Men are most apt to believe what they least understand.

We should rather examine, who is better learned, than who is more learned.

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

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

We can be knowledgeable with other men's knowledge, but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom.

A good marriage would be between a blind wife and a deaf husband.

We find our energies are actually cramped when we are overanxious to succeed.

A man must learn to endure patiently what he cannot avoid conveniently.

Greatness of soul consists not so much in soaring high and in pressing forward, as in knowing how to adapt and limit oneself.

Whenever a new finding is reported to the world people say - It is probably not true. Later on, when the reliability of a new finding has been fully confirmed, people say - OK, it may be true but it has no real significance. At last, when even the significance of the finding is obvious to everybody, people say - Well, it might have some significance, but the idea is not new.

The conduct of our lives is the true mirror of our doctrine.

A wise man loses nothing, if he but save himself.