Michel De Montaigne Quotes

We should tend our freedom wisely.

No passion disturbs the soundness of our judgement as anger does.

He lives happy and master of himself who can say as each day passes on, "I have lived.

Without doubt, it is a delightful harmony when doing and saying go together.

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.

There is no passion so much transports thesincerity of judgement as doth anger

We are all lumps, and of so various and inform a contexture, that every piece plays, every moment, its own game, and there is as much difference betwixt us and ourselves as betwixt us and others.

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

We can be knowledgeable with another man's knowledge, but we can't be wise with another man's wisdom.

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

A man with nothing to lend should refrain from borrowing.

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

What a prodigious conscience must that be that can be at quiet within itself whilst it harbors under thesame roof, with so agreeing and so calm a society, both the crime and the judge?

This emperor was arbiter of the whole world at nineteen, and yet would have a man to be thirty before he could be fit to determine a dispute about a gutter.

Between ourselves, there are two things that I have always observed to be in singular accord: supercelestial thoughts and subterranean conduct.

Speech belongs half to the speaker, half to the listener.

Writing does not cause misery, it is born of misery.

Tis no wonder, says one of the ancients, that chance has so great a dominion over us, since it is by chance we live.

The great and glorious masterpiece of man is to live with purpose.

A man must live in the world and make the best of it such as it is.

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

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

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

The clearest sign of wisdom is continued cheerfulness.

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.'

Valor is stability not of legs and arms but of courage and the soul.

We undo ourselves by impatience. Misfortunes have their life and their limits their sickness and their health.

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

There are defeats more triumphant than victories.

All the fame I look for in life is to have lived it quietly.

If you press me to say why I loved him I can say no more than it was because he was he and I was 1.

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

The great and glorious masterpiece of man is to know how to live to purpose.

The soul that has no established aim loses itself.

The great and glorious masterpiece of man is how to live with a purpose.

There is no man so good who were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.

He who does not live in some degree for others hardly lives for himself.

Oh what a valiant faculty is hope.

Once conform once do what others do because they do it and a kind of lethargy steals over all the finer senses of the soul.

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

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

No man is so exquisitely honest or upright in living but that ten times in his life he might not lawfully be hanged.

Fear desire hope still push us on toward the future.

The value of life lies not in the length of days but in the use we make of them a man may live long yet live very little.

There never were two opinions alike in all the world no more than two hours or two grains: the most universal quality is diversity.

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

Diogenes was asked what wine he liked best and he answered "Somebody else's."

Philosophy is doubt.

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

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."