I must use these great men's virtues as a cloak for my weakness. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
The wise man lives as long as he ought, not so long as he can. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Man in sooth is a marvellous, vain, fickle, and unstable subject. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
..a man may live long, yet live very little. Satisfaction in life depends not on the number of your years, but on… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Oh these foolish men! They could not create so much as a worm, but they create gods by the dozens. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Necessity reconciles and brings men together; and this accidental connection afterward forms itself into laws. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Man is forming thousands of ridiculous relations between himself and God. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
We can be knowledgeable with other men's knowledge, but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
In plain truth, lying is an accursed vice. We are not men, nor have any other tie upon another, but by our… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
The curiosity of knowing things has been given to man for a scourge. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Lying is a terrible vice, it testifies that one despises God, but fears men. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
God is favorable to those whom he makes to die by degrees; 'tis the only benefit of old age. The last death… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
I find no quality so easy for a man to counterfeit as devotion, though his life and manner are not conformable to… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Now there cannot be first principles for men, unless the Divinity has revealed them; all the rest--beginning, middle, and end--isnothing but dreams… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
The advantage of living is not measured by length, but by use; some men have lived long, and lived little; attend to… — 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
Aesop, that great man, saw his master making water as he walked. "What!" he said, "Must we void ourselves as we run?"… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Travelling through the world produces a marvellous clarity in the judgment of men. We are all of us confined and enclosed within… — 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
To begin depriving death of its greatest advantage over us, let us adopt a way clean contrary to that common one; let… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
My trade and my art is living. He who forbids me to speak about it according to my sense, experience, and practice,… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
He who remembers the evils he has undergone, and those that have threatened him, and the slight causes that have changed him… — 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… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Of all human and ancient opinions concerning religion, that seems to me the most likely and most excusable, that acknowledged God as… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
We cannot be held to what is beyond our strength and means; for at times the accomplishment and execution may not be… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
We have more poets than judges and interpreters of poetry. It is easier to write an indifferent poem than to understand a… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Traveling through the world produces a marvelous clarity in the judgment of men. We are all of us confined and enclosed within… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Intelligence is required to be able to know that a man knows not. — 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
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
Every one rushes elsewhere and into the future, because no one wants to face one's own inner self. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share
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
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
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
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
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
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
There are as many and innumerable degrees of wit, as there are cubits between this and heaven. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share
Lucius Arruntius killed himself, he said, to escape both the future and the past. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share
I have a vocabulary all my own. I pass the time when itis wet and disagreeable. Whenit is fine I do not wish to… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share
