“The customs and practices of life in society sweep us along.” — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Custom is a violent and treacherous school mistress. She, by little and lithe, slyly and unperceived, slips in the foot of her… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Laws gain their authority from actual possession and custom: it is perilous to go back to their origins; laws, like our rivers,… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
For all parts of the body that we see fit to expose to the wind and air are found fit to endure… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
The laws of conscience, which we pretend to be derived from nature, proceed from Custom. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
The common notions that we find in credit around us and infused into our souls by our fathers' seed, these seem to… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Those that will combat use and custom by the strict rules of grammar do but jest — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Traveling through the world produces a marvelous clarity in the judgment of men. We are all of us confined and enclosed within… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
A man may by custom fortify himself against pain, shame, and suchlike accidents; but as to death, we can experience it but… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
The laws of conscience, though we ascribe them to nature, actually come from custom. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Each man calls barbarism whatever is not his own practice; for indeed it seems we have no other test of truth and… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
There is nothing so extreme that is not allowed by the custom of some nation or other. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
An honest man is not accountable for the vice and folly of his trade, and therefore ought not to refuse the exercise… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Rash and incessant scolding runs into custom and renders itself despised. — 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
