The judgment is an utensil proper for all subjects, and will have an oar in everything. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
One may disavow and disclaim vices that surprise us and whereto our passions transport us. But those which by long habit are… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
And therefore, Reader, I myself am the subject of my book: it is not reasonable that you should employ your leisure on… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
I am one of those who hold that poetry is never so blithe as in a wanton and irregular subject. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Man in sooth is a marvellous, vain, fickle, and unstable subject. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
So it is with minds. Unless you keep them busy with some definite subject that will bridle and control them, they throw… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Can anything be imagined so ridiculous that this miserable and wretched creature, who is not so much as master of himself, but… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Man (in good earnest) is a marvellous vain, fickle, and unstable subject, and on whom it is very hard to form any… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Oh, what a valiant faculty is hope, that in a mortal subject, and in a moment, makes nothing of usurping infinity, immensity,… — 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
There is more ado to interpret interpretations than to interpret things, and more books upon books than upon any other subject; we… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
After a tongue has once got the knack of lying, it is not to be imagined how impossible almost it is to… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
One may disavow and disclaim vices that surprise us, and whereto our passions transport us; but those which by long habits are… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
I go out of my way, but rather by license than carelessness.... It is the inattentive reader who loses my subject, 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 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