If I am to serve as an instrument of deceit, at least let it be with a clear conscience. I do not… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Virtue cannot be followed but for herself, and if one sometimes borrows her mask to some other purpose, she presently pulls it… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
The general order of things that takes care of fleas and moles also takes care of men, if they will have the… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
How often, being moved under a false cause, if the person offending makes a good defense and presents us with a just… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Might I have had my own will, I would not have married Wisdom herself, if she would have had me. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
God might grant us riches, honours, life, and even health, to our own hurt; for every thing that is pleasing to us… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
If health and a fair day smile upon me, I am a very good fellow; if a corn trouble my toe, I… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
And if nobody reads me, shall I have wasted my time, when I have beguiled so many idle hours with such pleasant… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
If faces were not alike, we could not distinguish men from beasts; if they were not different, we could not tell one… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Amongst so many borrowed things, am glad if I can steal one, disguising and altering it for some new service. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Memory is a wonderfully useful tool, and without it judgement does its work with difficulty; it is entirely lacking in me.... Now,the… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Courtesy is a science of the highest importance. It is... opening a door that we may derive instruction from the example of… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
If I can, I shall keep my death from saying anything that my life has not already said. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Princes give mee sufficiently, if they take nothing from me, and doe me much good, if they doe me no hurt: it… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
The vulgar and common esteem is seldom happy in hitting right; and I am much mistaken if, amongst the writings of my… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Great authors, when they write about causes, adduce not only those they think are true but also those they do not believe… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
If not for that of conscience, yet at least for ambition's sake, let us reject ambition, let us disdain that thirst of… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
We are nearer neighbors to ourselves than the whiteness of snow or the weight of stones are to us: if man does… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
We may so seize on virtue, that if we embrace it with an overgreedy and violent desire, it may become vicious. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
There is not one of us that would not be worse than kings, if so continually corrupted as they are with a… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Man will rise, if God by exception lends him a hand; he will rise by abandoning and renouncing his own means, and… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
If your doctor does not think it good for you to sleep, to drink wine, or to eat of a particular dish,… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
If I were a maker of books I should compile a register, with comments, of different deaths. He who should teach people… — 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
