Time Quotes by Michel de Montaigne

For truth itself has not the privilege to be spoken at all times and in all sorts.

— Michel de Montaigne

Desire and hope will push us on toward the future.

— Michel de Montaigne

I neither complain of the past, nor do I fear the future.

— Michel de Montaigne

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

— Michel de Montaigne

Lucius Arruntius killed himself, he said, to escape both the future and the past.

— Michel de Montaigne

Time steals away without any inconvenience.

— Michel de Montaigne

“In our time the most warlike nations are the most rude and ignorant.”

— Michel de Montaigne

And if nobody reads me, shall I have wasted my time, when I have beguiled so many idle hours with such pleasant…

— Michel de Montaigne

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

An orator of past times declared that his calling was to make small things appear to be grand.

— Michel de Montaigne

There is nothing more notable in Socrates than that he found time, when he was an old man, to learn music and…

— Michel de Montaigne

Every period of life has its peculiar prejudices; whoever saw old age, that did not applaud the past, and condemn the present…

— Michel de Montaigne

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

— Michel de Montaigne

The strength of any plan depends on the time. Circumstances and things eternally shift and change.

— Michel de Montaigne

If you want it to be so, history can be a waste of time; it can also be, if you want it…

— Michel de Montaigne

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

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

“Every one of us is a hodge-podge, so shapeless and diverse in structure that each piece, each moment, plays its own game.…

— Michel de Montaigne

Petty vexations may at times be petty, but still they are vexations. The smallest and most inconsiderable annoyances are the most piercing.…

— Michel de Montaigne

Any time and any place can be used to study: his room, a garden, is table, his bed; when alone or in…

— Michel de Montaigne

The vulgar and common esteem is seldom happy in hitting right; and I am much mistaken if, amongst the writings of my…

— Michel de Montaigne

Our thoughts are always elsewhere; we are stayed and supported by the hope for a better life, or by the hope that…

— Michel de Montaigne

The pleasure we hold in esteem for the course of our lives ought to have a greater share of our time dedicated…

— Michel de Montaigne

I would like to suggest that our minds are swamped by too much study and by too much matter just as plants…

— Michel de Montaigne

Custom is a violent and treacherous school mistress. She, by little and lithe, slyly and unperceived, slips in the foot of her…

— Michel de Montaigne

Were I to live my life over again, I should live it just as I have done. I neither complain of the…

— Michel de Montaigne

We are all patchwork, and so shapeless and diverse in composition that each bit, each moment, plays its own game.

— Michel de Montaigne

We are never present with, but always beyond ourselves; fear, desire, hope, still push us on toward the future.

— Michel de Montaigne

No man dies before his hour. The time you leave behind was no more yours, than that which was before your birth,…

— Michel de Montaigne

To how many blockheads of my time has a cold and taciturn demeanor procured the credit of prudence and capacity!

— Michel de Montaigne

The utility of living consists not in the length of days, but in the use of time; a man may have lived…

— Michel de Montaigne

Live as long as you please, you will strike nothing off the time you will have to spend dead.

— Michel de Montaigne

If I had to live my life over again I would live it as I have lived it; I neither regret the…

— Michel De Montaigne

For truth itself does not have the privilege to be employed at any time and in every way; its use, noble as…

— Michel de Montaigne

After mature deliberation of counsel, the good Queen to establish a rule and immutable example unto all posterity, for the moderation and…

— Michel de Montaigne

“Let us never allow ourselves to be carried away so completely by pleasure that we fail to recall from time to time…

— Michel de Montaigne

“I have not seen anywhere in the world a more obvious malformed person and miracle than myself. Through use and time we…

— Michel de Montaigne

Socrates ... brought human wisdom back down from heaven, where she was wasting her time, and restored her to man… It is…

— Michel de Montaigne

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

T is one and the same Nature that rolls on her course, and whoever has sufficiently considered the present state of things…

— Michel de Montaigne