Michel De Montaigne Quotes

Fear desire hope still push us on toward the future.

Greatness of soul consists not so much in soaring high and in pressing forward as in knowing how to adapt and limit oneself.

L'utilité du vivre n'est pas en l'espace: elle est en l'usage.

Heureuse la mort qui oste le loisir aux apprests de tel equipage.

We have nothing to fear but fear itself

D'autant que nous avons cher, estre, et estre consiste en mouvement et action.

We only labor to stuff the memory, and leave the conscience and the understanding unfurnished and void.

L'honneste est stable et permanent.

Desire and hope will push us on toward the future.

Stubborn and ardent clinging to one's opinion is the best proof of stupidity.

J'accuse toute violence en l'education d'une ame tendre, qu'on dresse pour l'honneur, et la liberté.

Je hay entre autres vices, cruellement la cruauté, et par nature et par jugement, comme l'extreme de tous les vices.

Il n'est rien qui tente mes larmes que les larmes.

Les naturels sanguinaires à l'endroit des bestes, tesmoignent une propension naturelle à la cruauté.

Nature a, (ce crains-je) elle mesme attaché à l'homme quelque instinct à l'inhumanité

I do not believe, from what I have been told about this people, that there is anything barbarous or savage about them, except that we all call barbarous anything that is contrary to our own habits.

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

There is no passion so contagious as that of fear.

One should be ever booted and spurred and ready to depart.

I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.

If it be well weighed, to say that a man lieth, is as much to say, as that he is brave towards God and a coward towards men.

The Ancient Mariner said to Neptune during a great storm 'O God you will save me if you wish but I am going to go on holding my tiller straight.'

The highest wisdom is continual cheerfulness such a state like the region above the moon is always clear and serene.

Let us permit nature to have her way. She understands her business better than we do.

My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened.

The greater part of the world's troubles are due to questions of grammar.

Stupidity and wisdom meet in the same centre of sentiment and resolution, in the suffering of human accidents.

I...think it much more supportable to be always alone, than never to be so.

He who fears he shall suffer already suffers what he fears.

I speak the truth not so much as I would, but as much as I dare, and I dare a little more as I grow older.

The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them... Whether you find satisfaction in life depends not on your tale of years, but on your will.

Philosophy is doubt.

It is commonly seen by experience that excellent memories do often accompany weak judgements.

I put forward formless and unresolved notions, as do those who publish doubtful questions to debate in the schools, not to establish the truth but to seek it.

When I religiously confess myself to myself I find that the best virtue I have has in it some tincture of vice.

Why do people respect the package rather than the man?

A man with nothing to lend should refrain from borrowing.

There is no passion so much transports the sincerity of judgement as doth anger.

To an atheist all writings tend to atheism: he corrupts the most innocent matter with his own venom.

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to live to yourself.

There is no course of life so weak and sottish as that which is managed by order method and discipline.

The public weal requires that men should betray, and lie, and massacre.

Riches like glory or health have no more beauty or pleasure than their possessor is pleased to lend them.

If you press me to say why I loved him I can say no more than because he was he and I was I.

We are all of us richer than we think we are.

All is a-swarm with commentaries: of authors there is a dearth.

My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened.

The Ancient Mariner said to Neptune during a great storm "O God you will save me if you wish but I am going to go on holding my tiller straight."

There are defeats more triumphant than victories.

Death, they say, acquits us of all obligations.