I must use these great men's virtues as a cloak for my weakness. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Those that will combat use and custom by the strict rules of grammar do but jest — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
In general I ask for books that make use of learning, not those that build it up. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Everyone gives the title of barbarism to everything that is not in use in his own country. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Wit is a dangerous weapon, even to the possessor, if he knows not how to use it discreetly. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Every one's true worship was that which he found in use in the place where he chanced to be. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Difficulty is a coin the learned make use of like jugglers, to conceal the inanity of their art. — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Who ever saw a doctor use the prescription of his colleague without cutting out or adding something? — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
The desire for riches is more sharpened by their use than by their need. Pleasing all: a mark that can never be… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
For me, who only desire to become wise, not more learned or eloquent, these logical or Aristotelian dispositions of parts are of… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
We are all of us richer than we think we are; but we are taught to borrow and to beg, and brought… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them... Whether you find… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
The advantage of living is not measured by length, but by use; some men have lived long, and lived little; attend to… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Our skin is provided as adequately as theirs with endurance against the assaults of the weather: witness so many nations who have… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Human wisdom makes as ill use of her talent when she exercises it in rescinding from the number and sweetness of those… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Learning is a good medicine: but no medicine is powerful enough to preserve itself from taint and corruption independently of defects in… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Learning is not to be tacked to the mind, but we must fuse and blend them together, not merely giving the mind… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Their pupils and their little charges are not nourished and fed by what they learn: the learning is passed from hand to… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
Make use of life while you have it. Whether you have lived enough depends upon yourself, not on the number of your… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
An honest man is not accountable for the vice and folly of his trade, and therefore ought not to refuse the exercise… — 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
