“There is nothing more unsociable than man, and nothing more sociable: unsociable by his vice, sociable by his nature.” — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Examples teach us that in military affairs, and all others of a like nature, study is apt to enervate and relax the… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
But as Nature is the best guide, teaching must be the development of natural inclinations, for which purpose the teacher must watch… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Physicians have this advantage: the sun lights their success and the earth covers their failures. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
“I have no other passion to keep me in breath. What avarice, ambition, quarrels, law suits do for others who, like me,… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
He that had never seen a river imagined the first he met to be the sea; and the greatest things that have… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
If I were of the trade, I should naturalize art as much as they "artialize" nature. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Old age is a lease nature only signs as a particular favor, and it may be, to one, only in the space… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Scratching is one of nature's sweetest gratifications, and nearest at hand. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
It is indeed the boundary of life, beyond which we are not to pass; which the law of nature has pitched for… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
The laws of conscience, which we pretend to be derived from nature, proceed from Custom. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Nature has with a Motherly Tenderness observed this, that the Action she has enjoyned us for our Necessity should be also pleasant… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
“Compare with such a one the common rabble of mankind, stupid and mean-spirited, servile, instable, and continually floating with the tempest of… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Covetousness is both the beginning and the end of the devil's alphabet - the first vice in corrupt nature that moves, and… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
There is a certain consideration, and a general duty of humanity, that binds us not only to the animals, which have life… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
The most fruitful and natural exercise for our minds is, in my opinion, conversation. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Presumption is our natural and original malady. The most vulnerable and frail of all creatures is man, and at the same time… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
There is no desire more natural than the desire for knowledge. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Nature clasps all her creatures in a universal embrace; there is not one of them which she has not plainly furnished with… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
There is no virtue which does not rejoice a well-descended nature; there is a kind of I know not what congratulation in… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
“Let us give Nature a chance; she knows her business better than we do.” — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Let us permit nature to have her way. She understands her business better than we do. — 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
