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
Other passions have objects to flatter them, and seem to content and satisfy them for a while; there is power in ambition,… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
There is power in ambition, pleasure in luxury...but envy can gain nothing but vexation. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
If my mind could gain a firm footing, I would not make essays, I would make decisions; but it is always in… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
In my youth I studied for ostentation; later, a little to gain wisdom; now, for recreation; never for gain. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Pythagoras used to say that life resembles the Olympic Games: a few people strain their muscles to carry off a prize; others… — 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
