Self Quotes by Michel de Montaigne

29 Self quotes by Michel de Montaigne

All Self quotes Michel de Montaigne’s page

Michel de Montaigne’s 29 excerpts present a rich tapestry of self‑reflection, inviting readers to examine human nature through his candid, exploratory lens.

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God defend me from myself.

Michel de Montaigne

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May God defend me from myself.

Michel de Montaigne

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From Obedience and submission comes all our virtues, and all sin is comes from self-opinion.

Michel de Montaigne

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True freedom is to have power over oneself for everything.

Michel de Montaigne

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What fear has once made me will, I am bound still to will when without fear.

Michel de Montaigne

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The worst condition of humans is when they lose knowledge and control of themselves.

Michel de Montaigne

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As for me, then, I love life and cultivate it just as God has been pleased to grant it to us.

Michel de Montaigne

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Every one rushes elsewhere and into the future, because no one wants to face one's own inner self.

Michel de Montaigne

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There is a certain amount of purpose, acquiescence, and satisfaction in nursing one's melancholy.

Michel De Montaigne

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I would rather be old for a shorter time than be old before my time.

Michel de Montaigne

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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

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I honor most those to whom I show least honor; and where my soul moves with great alacrity, I forget the proper…

Michel de Montaigne

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If others surpass you in knowledge, in charm, in strength, in fortune, you have other causes to blame for it; but if…

Michel de Montaigne

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Men throw themselves on foreign assistances to spare their own, which, after all, are the only certain and sufficient ones.

Michel de Montaigne

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In my youth I studied for ostentation; later, a little to gain wisdom; now, for recreation; never for gain.

Michel de Montaigne

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I, who am king of the matter I treat, and who owe an accounting for it to no one, do not for…

Michel de Montaigne

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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

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To compose our character is our duty, not to compose books, and to win, not battles and provinces, but order and tranquillity…

Michel de Montaigne

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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

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My library is my kingdom, and here I try to make my rule absolute-shutting off this single nook from wife, daughter and…

Michel de Montaigne

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The first law that ever God gave to man was a law of pure obedience; it was a commandment naked and simple,…

Michel de Montaigne

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My opinion is that we must lend ourselves to others and give ourselves only to ourselves. If my will happened to be…

Michel de Montaigne

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Painting myself for others, I have painted my inward self with colors clearer than my original ones. I have no more made…

Michel de Montaigne

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I have a vocabulary all my own. I pass the time when itis wet and disagreeable. Whenit is fine I do not…

Michel de Montaigne

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“You never speak about yourself without loss. Your self-condemnation is always accredited, your self-praise discredited. There may be some people of my…

Michel de Montaigne

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Memory is a wonderfully useful tool, and without it judgement does its work with difficulty; it is entirely lacking in me… Now,the…

Michel de Montaigne

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To say less of yourself than is true is stupidity, not modesty. To pay yourself less than you are worth is cowardice…

Michel de Montaigne

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Peoples nurtured on freedom and self-government judge any other form of polity to be deformed and unnatural. Those who are used to…

Michel de Montaigne

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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

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No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately.

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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

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Every one rushes elsewhere and into the future, because no one wants to face one's own inner self.

Michel de Montaigne

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Beauty is the true prerogative of women, and so peculiarly their own, that our sex, though naturally requiring another sort of feature, is never…

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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

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Fie on the eloquence that leaves us craving itself, not things!

Michel de Montaigne

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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

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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