Quotes by Michel de Montaigne
He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
I quote others only in order the better to express myself.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
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.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
Man is the sole animal whose nudity offends his own companions, and the only one who, in his natural actions, withdraws and hides himself from his own kind.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
We can be Knowledgeable with other men's knowledge, but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
The concern that some women show at the absence of their husbands, does not arise from their not seeing them and being with them, but from their apprehension that their husbands are enjoying pleasures in which they do not participate, and which, from their being at a distance, they have not the power of interrupting.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
Let us permit nature to have her way. She understands her business better than we do.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
The laws of conscience, which we pretend to be derived from nature, proceed from custom.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
The middle sort of historians (of which the most part are) spoil all; they will chew our meat for us.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
The souls of emperors and cobblers are cast in the same mold... The same reason that makes us wrangle with a neighbour causes a war betwixt princes.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
Let us a little permit Nature to take her own way; she better understands her own affairs than we.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
The finest thing in the world is knowing how to belong to oneself.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
I speak truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare; and I dare a little the more, as I grow older.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
It is not without good reason said, that he who has not a good memory should never take upon him the trade of lying.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
Rejoice in the things that are present; all else is beyond thee.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
Someone might say of me that I have only made a bouquet of other people's flowers here, having supplied nothing of my own but the thread to bind them.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
Experience has taught me this, that we undo ourselves by impatience. Misfortunes have their life and their limits, their sickness and their health.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
Not being able to govern events, I govern myself, and apply myself to them, if they will not apply themselves to me.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
Once conform, once do what others do because they do it, and a kind of lethargy steals over all the finer senses of the soul.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
We find our energies are actually cramped when we are overanxious to succeed.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
There are defeats more triumphant than victories.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
In the education of children there is nothing like alluring the interest and affection; otherwise you only make so many asses laden with books.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
When I play with my cat, who knows if I am not a pastime to her more than she is to me?
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
There is no man so good that if he placed all his actions and thought under the scrutiny of the laws, he would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I was I.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes
An unattempted woman cannot boast of her chastity.
Link to Quote
Michel de Montaigne Quotes