Books Quotes by Michel de Montaigne

Books are a languid pleasure.

— Michel de Montaigne

Every abridgement of a good book is a fool abridged.

— Michel de Montaigne

All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.

— Michel de Montaigne

I am myself the matter of my book.

— Michel de Montaigne

I enjoy books as misers enjoy treasures, because I know I can enjoy them whenever I please.

— Michel de Montaigne

Off I go, rummaging about in books for sayings which please me.

— Michel de Montaigne

I seek in the reading of books, only to please myself, by an honest diversion.

— Michel de Montaigne

The study of books is a drowsy and feeble exercise which does not warm you up.

— Michel de Montaigne

Every place swarms with commentaries; of authors there is great scarcity.

— Michel de Montaigne

In general I ask for books that make use of learning, not those that build it up.

— Michel de Montaigne

“All is a-swarm with commentaries: of authors there is a dearth.”

— Michel de Montaigne

If to take up books were to take them in, and if to see them were to consider them, and to run…

— Michel de Montaigne

And one might therefore say of me that in this book I have only made up a bunch of other people's flowers,…

— Michel de Montaigne

When I am attached by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and…

— Michel de Montaigne

If you have known how to compose your life, you have done a great deal more than the person who knows how…

— Michel de Montaigne

An able reader often discovers in other people's writings perfections beyond those that the author put in or perceived, and lends them…

— Michel de Montaigne

To compose our character is our duty, not to compose books, and to win, not battles and provinces, but order and tranquillity…

— Michel de Montaigne

Authors communicate with the people by some special extrinsic mark; I am the first to do so by my entire being, as…

— Michel de Montaigne

“This, reader, is an honest book...I want to appear in my simple, natural and everyday dress, without strain or artifice; for it…

— Michel de Montaigne

Books are pleasant, but if by being over-studious we impair our health and spoil our good humour, two of the best things…

— Michel de Montaigne

“Atheism being a proposition as unnatural as monstrous, difficult also and hard to establish in the human understanding, how arrogant soever, there…

— Michel de Montaigne

To compose our character is our duty, not to compose books, and to win, not battles and provinces, but order and tranquility…

— Michel de Montaigne

I have seen books made of things neither studied nor ever understood ... the author contenting himself for his own part, to…

— Michel de Montaigne

In my opinion, the most fruitful and natural play of the mind is in conversation. I find it sweeter than any other…

— Michel de Montaigne

I go out of my way, but rather by license than carelessness… It is the inattentive reader who loses my subject, not…

— Michel de Montaigne

To divert myself from a troublesome fancy, it is but to run to my books; they presently fix me to them, and…

— Michel de Montaigne

Painting myself for others, I have painted my inward self with colors clearer than my original ones. I have no more made…

— Michel de Montaigne

“READER, You have here an honest book; it does at the outset forewarn You that, in contriving the same, I have proposed…

— Michel de Montaigne

“To compensate a little for the treachery and weakness of my memory, so extreme that it has happened to me more than…

— Michel de Montaigne

If I were a maker of books I should compile a register, with comments, of different deaths. He who should teach people…

— Michel de Montaigne

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

— Michel de Montaigne

And therefore, Reader, I myself am the subject of my book: it is not reasonable that you should employ your leisure on…

— Michel de Montaigne

Even those who argue against fame still want the books they write against it to bear their name in the title and…

— Michel De Montaigne

I seek in books only to give myself pleasure by honest amusement; or if I study, I seek only the learning that…

— Michel de Montaigne

In the education of children there is nothing like alluring the interest and affection; otherwise you only make so many asses laden…

— Michel de Montaigne

I want to be seen here in my simple, natural, ordinary fashion, without straining or artifice; for it is myself that I…

— Michel de Montaigne

In true education, anything that comes to our hand is as good as a book: the prank of a page- boy, the…

— Michel de Montaigne

There is more ado to interpret interpretations than to interpret things, and more books upon books than upon any other subject; we…

— Michel de Montaigne

In his commerce with men I mean him to include- and that principally- those who live only in the memory of books.…

— Michel de Montaigne

Great authors, when they write about causes, adduce not only those they think are true but also those they do not believe…

— Michel de Montaigne