Covetousness is both the beginning and the end of the devil's alphabet - the first vice in corrupt nature that moves, and… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Let us a little permit nature to take her own way; she better understands her own affairs than we. — 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
But sure there is need of other remedies than dreaming, a weak contention of art against nature. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
It is not reasonable that art should win the place of honor over our great and powerful mother Nature. We have so… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
But as Nature is the best guide, teaching must be the development of natural inclinations, for which purpose the teacher must watch… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Nature has made us a present of a broad capacity for entertaining ourselves apart, and often calls us to do so, to… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
My opinion is that we must lend ourselves to others and give ourselves only to ourselves. If my will happened to be… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
There is no virtue which does not rejoice a well-descended nature; there is a kind of I know not what congratulation in… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
It is an injustice that an old, broken, half-dead father should enjoy alone, in a corner of his hearth, possessions that would… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Old age is a lease nature only signs as a particular favor, and it may be, to one, only in the space… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
He that had never seen a river imagined the first he met to be the sea; and the greatest things that have… — 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
