The curiosity of knowing things has been given to man for a scourge. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
As far as fidelity is concerned, there is no animal in the world as treacherous as man. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Learned we may be with another man's learning: we can only be wise with wisdom of our own. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
A man must always study, but he must not always go to school: what a contemptible thing is an old abecedarian! — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
A man must not always tell all, for that be folly; but what a man says should be what he thinks. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
There are few men who dare to publish to the world the prayers they make to Almighty God. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
When we see a man with bad shoes, we say it is no wonder, if he is a shoemaker. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Certainly, if he still has himself, a man of understanding has lost nothing. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Others form man; I tell of him, and portray a particular one, very ill-formed, whom I should really make very different from… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Laws are often made by fools, and even more often by men who fail in equity because they hate equality: but always… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
And I loathe people who find it harder to put up with a gown askew than with a soul askew and who… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
There is nothing more notable in Socrates than that he found time, when he was an old man, to learn music and… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
A young man ought to cross his own rules, to awake his vigor, and to keep it from growing faint and rusty.… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
After a tongue has once got the knack of lying, it is not to be imagined how impossible almost it is to… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Presumption is our natural and original malady. The most vulnerable and frail of all creatures is man, and at the same time… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
A man should keep for himself a little back shop, all his own, quite unadulterated, in which he establishes his true freedom… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Learning is a good medicine: but no medicine is powerful enough to preserve itself from taint and corruption independently of defects in… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Business in a certain sort of men is a mark of understanding, and they are honored for it. Their souls seek repose… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
The laws keep up their credit, not by being just, but because they are laws; 'tis the mystic foundation of their authority;… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
No profession or occupation is more pleasing than the military; a profession or exercise both noble in execution (for the strongest, most… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
My library is my kingdom, and here I try to make my rule absolute-shutting off this single nook from wife, daughter and… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
The first law that ever God gave to man was a law of pure obedience; it was a commandment naked and simple,… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Lying is a disgraceful vice, and one that Plutarch paints in most disgraceful colors, when he says that it is "affording testimony… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
The public weal requires that men should betray, and lie, and massacre. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
A man must keep a little back shop where he can be himself without reserve. In solitude alone can he know true… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
It is only certain that there is nothing certain, and that nothing is more miserable or more proud than man. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Man is certainly crazy. He could not make a mite, and he makes gods by the dozen. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
A man must live in the world and make the best of it, such as it is. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Not because Socrates said so,... I look upon all men as my compatriots. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Men of simple understanding, little inquisitive and little instructed, make good Christians. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
An ancient father says that a dog we know is better company than a man whose language we do not understand. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
A learned man is not learned in all things; but a sufficient man is sufficient throughout, even to ignorance itself. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Nature has, herself, I fear, imprinted in man a kind of instinct to inhumanity. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
The most unhappy and frail creatures are men and yet they are the proudest. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Man is quite insane. He wouldn?t know how to create a maggot, and he creates Gods by the dozen. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
A man should think less of what he eats and more with whom he eats because no food is so satisfying as… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
“If it be well weighed, to say that a man lieth, is as much to say, as that he is brave towards… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
I say that male and female are cast in the same mold; except for education and habits, the difference is not great. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
There is nothing on which men are commonly more intent than on making a way for their opinions. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share
The laws keep up their credit, not by being just, but because they are laws; 'tis the mystic foundation of their authority; they have… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share
Every one rushes elsewhere and into the future, because no one wants to face one's own inner self. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share
Beauty is the true prerogative of women, and so peculiarly their own, that our sex, though naturally requiring another sort of feature, is never… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share
The height and value of true virtue consists in the facility, utility, and pleasure of its exercise; so far from difficulty, that boys, as… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share
The plainest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness: her state is like that of things in the regions above the moon, always clear… — Michel De Montaigne Copy Share
The corruption of the age is made up by the particular contribution of every individual man; some contribute treachery, others injustice, atheism, tyranny, avarice,… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share
If people must be talking about me, I would have it to be truthfully and justly. I would willingly return from the next world… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share
In true friendship, in which I am expert, I give myself to my friend more than I draw him to me. I not only… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share
There are as many and innumerable degrees of wit, as there are cubits between this and heaven. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share
Lucius Arruntius killed himself, he said, to escape both the future and the past. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share
I have a vocabulary all my own. I pass the time when itis wet and disagreeable. Whenit is fine I do not wish to… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share
