Love is like playing the piano. First you must learn to play by the rules, then you must forget the rules and… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
If others surpass you in knowledge, in charm, in strength, in fortune, you have other causes to blame for it; but if… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than it was because he was he,… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
A good marriage (if any there be) refuses the conditions of love and endeavors to present those of amity. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Knowledge is an excellent drug; but no drug has virtue enough to preserve itself from corruption and decay, if the vessel be… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Why dost thou complain of this world? It detains thee not; thy own cowardice is the cause, if thou livest in pain. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
If to take up books were to take them in, and if to see them were to consider them, and to run… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
A father is very miserable who has no other hold on his children's affection than the need they have of his assistance,… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
There is no man so good that if he placed all his actions and thoughts under the scrutiny of the laws, he… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
If you have known how to compose your life, you have done a great deal more than the person who knows how… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
I aim here only at revealing myself, who will perhaps be different tomorrow, if I learn something new which changes me. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
The human face is a weak guarantee; yet it deserves some consideration. And if I had to whip the wicked, I would… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Others form man; I tell of him, and portray a particular one, very ill-formed, whom I should really make very different from… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
If you want it to be so, history can be a waste of time; it can also be, if you want it… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
When we see a man with bad shoes, we say it is no wonder, if he is a shoemaker. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
If love and ambition should be in equal balance, and come to jostle with equal force, I make no doubt but that… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
We must learn to endure what we cannot avoid. Our life is composed, like the harmony of the world, of contrary things,… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
We have no participation in Being, because all human nature is ever midway between being born and dying, giving off only a… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
In his commerce with men I mean him to include- and that principally- those who live only in the memory of books.… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Books are pleasant, but if by being over-studious we impair our health and spoil our good humour, two of the best things… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
If by being overstudious, we impair our health and spoil our good humor, let us give it up. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
He who falls obstinate in his courage, if he falls he fights from his knees. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
My opinion is that we must lend ourselves to others and give ourselves only to ourselves. If my will happened to be… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Courtesy, like grace and beauty, that which begets liking and inclination to love one another at the first sight, and in the… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
If these Essays were worthy of being judged, it might fall out, in my opinion, that they would not find much favour,… — 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
