The memory represents to us not what we choose but what it pleases. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Tis faith alone that vividly and certainly comprehends the deep mysteries of our religion. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
I find that the best virtue I have has in it some tincture of vice. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
There is nothing so extreme that is not allowed by the custom of some nation or other. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
It is an absolute perfection... to get the very most out of one's individuality. — 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
If a man should importune me to give a reason why I loved him, I find it could no otherwise be expressed,… — 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
Oh, a friend! How true is that old saying, that the enjoyment of one is sweeter and more necessary than that of… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
In the education of children there is nothing like alluring the interest and affection; otherwise you only make so many asses laden… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
One open way of speaking introduces another open way of speaking, and draws out discoveries, like wine and love. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
If there is such a thing as a good marriage, it is because it resembles friendship rather than love. — 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
"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
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
Even from their infancy we frame them to the sports of love: their instruction, behavior, attire, grace, learning and all their words… — 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
Teach him a certain refinement in sorting out and selecting his arguments, with an affection for relevance and so for brevity. Above… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
I love those historians that are either very simple or most excellent. Such as are between both (which is the most common… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
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
In true friendship, in which I am expert, I give myself to my friend more than I draw him to me. I… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
“We thought we were tying our marriage-knots more tightly by removing all means of undoing them;22 but the tighter we pulled the… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
All passions that suffer themselves to be relished and digested are but moderate. — 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
