Wise people are foolish if they cannot adapt to foolish people. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Every day I hear stupid people say things that are not stupid. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Other people do not see you at all, but guess at you by uncertain conjectures. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
We are more unhappy to see people ahead of us than happy to see people behind us. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
And I loathe people who find it harder to put up with a gown askew than with a soul askew and who… — 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
If ordinary people complain that I speak too much of myself, I complain that they do not even think of themselves. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Authors communicate with the people by some special extrinsic mark; I am the first to do so by my entire being, as… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
I have often seen people uncivil by too much civility, and tiresome in their courtesy. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
I do not correct my first imaginings by my second--well, yes, perhaps a word or so, but only to vary, not to… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
People of our time are so formed for agitation and ostentation that goodness, moderation, equability, constancy, and such quiet and obscure qualities… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
I do not believe, from what I have been told about this people, that there is anything barbarous or savage about them,… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
I do not portray the thing in itself. I portray the passage; not a passing from one age to another, or, as… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
A wellborn mind that is practiced in dealing with people makes itself thoroughly agreeable by itself. Art is nothing else but thelist… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
It is probable that the principal credit of miracles, visions, enchantments, and such extraordinary occurrences comes from the power of imagination, acting… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
The common notions that we find in credit around us and infused into our souls by our fathers' seed, these seem to… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
An able reader often discovers in other people's writings perfections beyond those that the author put in or perceived, and lends them… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Whenever a new finding is reported to the world people say - It is probably not true. Later on, when the reliability… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
What we are told of the inhabitants of Brazil, that they never die but of old age, is attributed to the tranquility… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Pythagoras used to say that life resembles the Olympic Games: a few people strain their muscles to carry off a prize; others… — 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
If people must be talking about me, I would have it to be truthfully and justly. I would willingly return from the… — 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
And one might therefore say of me that in this book I have only made up a bunch of other people's flowers,… — 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
