Character Quotes by Michel de Montaigne

From Obedience and submission comes all our virtues, and all sin is comes from self-opinion.

— Michel de Montaigne

Virtue shuns ease as a companion. It demands a rough and thorny path.

— Michel de Montaigne

Virtue can have naught to do with ease. . . . It craves a steep and thorny path.

— Michel de Montaigne

We may so seize on virtue, that if we embrace it with an overgreedy and violent desire, it may become vicious.

— Michel de Montaigne

“Death is not one of our social managements; it is a scene with one character.”

— Michel de Montaigne

Virtue rejects facility to be her companion. She requires a craggy, rough and thorny way.

— Michel de Montaigne

The easy, gentle, and sloping path . . . is not the path of true virtue. It demands a rough and thorny road.

— Michel de Montaigne

I find that the best virtue I have has in it some tincture of vice.

— Michel de Montaigne

Who is only good that others may know it, and that he may be the better esteemed when 'tis known, who will…

— Michel de Montaigne

Virtue cannot be followed but for herself, and if one sometimes borrows her mask to some other purpose, she presently pulls it…

— Michel de Montaigne

If virtue cannot shine bright, but by the conflict of contrary appetites, shall we then say that she cannot subsist without the…

— Michel de Montaigne

The recognition of virtue is not less valuable from the lips of the man who hates it, since truth forces him to…

— Michel de Montaigne

Most of our occupations are low comedy… We must play our part duly, but as the part of a borrowed character. Of…

— 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

Those sciences which govern the morals of mankind, such as Theology and Philosophy, make everything their concern: no activity is so private…

— Michel de Montaigne

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

The height and value of true virtue consists in the facility, utility, and pleasure of its exercise; so far from difficulty, that…

— 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

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

One man may have some special knowledge at first-hand about the character of a river or a spring, who otherwise knows only…

— Michel de Montaigne

“when Dandamys the Wise heard accounts of the lives of Socrates, Pythagoras and Diogenes, he said that they were in every way…

— Michel de Montaigne

The lack of wealth is easily repaired but the poverty of the soul is irreplaceable.

— Michel de Montaigne

“The other two are rich and noble; examples of virtue rarely make their home among people like that.”

— Michel de Montaigne

In truth, the care and expense of our fathers aims only at furnishing our heads with knowledge; of judgement and virtue, little…

— Michel de Montaigne

Now, of all the benefits that virtue confers upon us, the contempt of death is one of the greatest.

— Michel de Montaigne

The strangest, most generous, and proudest of all virtues is true courage.

— Michel de Montaigne

It is a monstrous thing that I will say, but I will say it all the same: I find in many things…

— Michel de Montaigne

Any time and any place can be used to study: his room, a garden, is table, his bed; when alone or in…

— Michel de Montaigne

Courtesy is a science of the highest importance. It is... opening a door that we may derive instruction from the example of…

— Michel de Montaigne

We owe subjection and obedience to all our kings, whether good or bad, alike, for that has respect unto their office; but…

— Michel de Montaigne