I enjoy books as misers enjoy treasures, because I know I can enjoy them whenever I please. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
I seek in the reading of books, only to please myself, by an honest diversion. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Off I go, rummaging about in books for sayings which please me. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
“All is a-swarm with commentaries: of authors there is a dearth.” — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
The study of books is a drowsy and feeble exercise which does not warm you up. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Every place swarms with commentaries; of authors there is great scarcity. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
In general I ask for books that make use of learning, not those that build it up. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
“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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
“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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
I have seen books made of things neither studied nor ever understood ... the author contenting himself for his own part, to… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
“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 Copy Share Image
“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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately. — 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; they have… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Every one rushes elsewhere and into the future, because no one wants to face one's own inner self. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
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 Image
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 Image
Fie on the eloquence that leaves us craving itself, not things! — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
There are as many and innumerable degrees of wit, as there are cubits between this and heaven. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
