If people must be talking about me, I would have it to be truthfully and justly. I would willingly return from the… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
The most ordinary things, the most common and familiar, if we could see them in their true light, would turn out to… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
But as Nature is the best guide, teaching must be the development of natural inclinations, for which purpose the teacher must watch… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
If falsehood, like truth, had but one face, we would be more on equal terms. For we would consider the contrary of… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Learning is not to be tacked to the mind, but we must fuse and blend them together, not merely giving the mind… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
If I were of the trade, I should naturalize art as much as they "artialize" nature. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
If others examined themselves attentively, as I do, they would find themselves, as I do, full of inanity and nonsense. Get rid… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
A person is bound to lose when he talks about himself; if he belittles himself, he is believed; if he praises himself,… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
A tutor should not be continually thundering instruction into the ears of his pupil, as if he were pouring it through a… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
I will follow the right side even to the fire, but excluding the fire if I can. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
When I play with my cat, who knows whether I do not make her more sport than she makes me? — 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
Lay a beam between these two towers of such width as we need to walk on: there is no philosophical wisdom of… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
If my intentions were not to be read in my eyes and voice, I should not have survived so long without quarrels… — 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
"Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation." -If you press me to say why I… — 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
Marriage has, for its share, usefulness, justice, honour, and constancy; a stale but more durable pleasure. Love is grounded on pleasure alone,… — 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
Not being able to govern events, I govern myself, and apply myself to them if they will not apply themselves to me. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Wise people are foolish if they cannot adapt to foolish people. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
We find ourselves more taken with the running up and down, the games, and puerile simplicities of our children, than we do,… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
If atoms do, by chance, happen to combine themselves into so many shapes, why have they never combined together to form a… — 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
