Greater Quotes by Michel de Montaigne

No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately.

— Michel de Montaigne

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

Every one rushes elsewhere and into the future, because no one wants to face one's own inner self.

— Michel de Montaigne

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

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

Fie on the eloquence that leaves us craving itself, not things!

— Michel de Montaigne

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

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

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

Most pleasures embrace us but to strangle.

— Michel de Montaigne

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

There are as many and innumerable degrees of wit, as there are cubits between this and heaven.

— Michel de Montaigne

A man has need of tough ears to hear himself fairly judged.

— Michel de Montaigne

Lucius Arruntius killed himself, he said, to escape both the future and the past.

— Michel de Montaigne

I have a vocabulary all my own. I pass the time when itis wet and disagreeable. Whenit is fine I do not wish to…

— Michel de Montaigne