Is there a polity better ordered, the offices better distributed, and more inviolably observed and maintained, than that of bees? — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
The laws of conscience, though we ascribe them to nature, actually come from custom. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Reason has so many forms that we do not know which to choose-Experiment has no fewer. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Repentance is but a denying of our will, and an opposition of our fantasies. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Only he can judge of matters great and high whose soul is likewise. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
A man must always study, but he must not always go to school: what a contemptible thing is an old abecedarian! — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
I have never known a greater miracle, or monster, than myself. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
The lack of wealth is easily repaired but the poverty of the soul is irreplaceable. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
A man must learn to endure patiently what he cannot avoid conveniently. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
We should rather examine, who is better learned, than who is more learned. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Friendship is a creature formed for a companionship not for a herd. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Who does not in some sort live to others, does not live much to himself. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Nothing else but an insatiate thirst of enjoying a greedily desired object. — 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
