Michel de Montaigne's Quotes

I know well what I am fleeing from but not what I am in search of.

Ignorance is the softest pillow on which a man can rest his head.

It is the mind that maketh good or ill, That maketh wretch or happy, rich or poor.

Let us not be ashamed to speak what we shame not to think.

Marriage, a market which has nothing free but the entrance.

Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.

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

A wise man never loses anything, if he has himself.

An untempted woman cannot boast of her chastity.

Any person of honor chooses rather to lose his honor than to lose his conscience.

How many condemnations I have witnessed more criminal than the crime!

I have often seen people uncivil by too much civility, and tiresome in their courtesy.

In nine lifetimes, you'll never know as much about your cat as your cat knows about you.

My trade and art is to live.

Nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know.

Of all our infirmities, the most savage is to despise our being.

The ceaseless labour of your life is to build the house of death.

The thing I fear most is fear.

The way of the world is to make laws, but follow custom.

The world is all a carcass and vanity, The shadow of a shadow, a play And in one word, just nothing.

The world is but a perpetual see-saw.

There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.

There is a sort of gratification in doing good which makes us rejoice in ourselves.

There is no desire more natural than the desire for knowledge.

There is perhaps no more obvious vanity than to write of it so vainly.

We can be knowledgable with other men's knowledge but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom.

Wit is a dangerous weapon, even to the possessor, if he knows not how to use it discreetly.

Covetousness is both the beginning and the end of the devil's alphabet - the first vice in corrupt nature that moves, and the last which dies.

Death, they say, acquits us of all obligations.

Every man bears the whole stamp of the human condition.

Few men have been admired of their familiars.

Fortune, seeing that she could not make fools wise, has made them lucky.

How many things we held yesterday as articles of faith which today we tell as fables.

I do not speak the minds of others except to speak my own mind better.

If a man urge me to tell wherefore I loved him, I feel it cannot be expressed but by answering: Because it was he, because it was myself.

It is an absolute and virtually divine perfection to know how to enjoy our being rightfully.

It should be noted that children at play are not playing about; their games should be seen as their most serious-minded activity.

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

The confidence in another man's virtue is no light evidence of a man's own, and God willingly favors such a confidence.

The finest souls are those that have the most variety and suppleness.

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

The strangest, most generous, and proudest of all virtues is true courage.

The worst of my actions or conditions seem not so ugly unto me as I find it both ugly and base not to dare to avouch for them.

There is little less trouble in governing a private family than a whole kingdom.

There is not much less vexation in the government of a private family than in the managing of an entire state.

Unless a man feels he has a good enough memory, he should never venture to lie.

Virtue rejects facility to be her companion. She requires a craggy, rough and thorny way.

We are Christians by the same title as we are natives of Perigord or Germany.

If a man should importune me to give a reason why I loved him, I find it could no otherwise be expressed, than by making answer: because it was he, because it was I.

It is a sign of contraction of the mind when it is content, or of weariness. A spirited mind never stops within itself; it is always aspiring and going beyond its strength.

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.

I set forth a humble and inglorious life; that does not matter. You can tie up all moral philosophy with a common and private life just as well as with a life of richer stuff. Each man bears the entire form of man's estate.

If you don't know how to die, don't worry; Nature will tell you what to do on the spot, fully and adequately. She will do this job perfectly for you; don't bother your head about it.

In true education, anything that comes to our hand is as good as a book: the prank of a page- boy, the blunder of a servant, a bit of table talk - they are all part of the curriculum.

Even from their infancy we frame them to the sports of love: their instruction, behavior, attire, grace, learning and all their words azimuth only at love, respects only affection. Their nurses and their keepers imprint no other thing in them.

The entire lower world was created in the likeness of the higher world. All that exists in the higher world appears like an image in this lower world; yet all this is but One.

A good marriage would be between a blind wife and a deaf husband.

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

Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it.

Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself.

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.

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

If there is such a thing as a good marriage, it is because it resembles friendship rather than love.

The beautiful souls are they that are universal, open, and ready for all things.

I have never seen a greater monster or miracle in the world than myself.

Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside equally desperate to get out.

There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees.

He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak.

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.

A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears.

Confidence in others' honesty is no light testimony of one's own integrity.

I do myself a greater injury in lying than I do him of whom I tell a lie.

Make your educational laws strict and your criminal ones can be gentle; but if you leave youth its liberty you will have to dig dungeons for ages.

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