Famous Michel Eyquem De Montaigne Quotations

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"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."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"The most unhappy and frail creatures are men and yet they are the proudest."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"It is much more easy to accuse the one sex than to excuse the other."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"All the fame you should look for in life is to have lived it quietly."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"We need very strong ears to hear ourselves judged frankly, and because there are few who can endure frank criticism without being stung by it, those who venture to criticize us perform a remarkable act of friendship, for to undertake to wound or offend a man for his own good is to have a healthy love for him."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"Lying is a terrible vice, it testifies that one despises God, but fears men."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"My reason is not framed to bend or stoop: my knees are."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"Philosophy is doubt."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"A learned person is not learned in everything; but the capable person is capable in everything, even in what he is ignorant of"
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"Anyone who does not feel sufficiently strong in memory should not meddle with lying."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"Children's playthings are not sports and should be deemed as their most serious actions."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"Even on the most exalted throne in the world we are only sitting on our own bottom."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"Friendship is the highest degree of perfection in society."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"God gives us our relatives- thank God we can choose our friends."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"He who fears he will suffer, already suffers because of his fear."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"He who would teach men to die would at the same time teach them to live."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"How many things which served us yesterday as articles of faith, are fables for us today."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"It is a sign of contraction of the mind when it is content, or of weariness."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"Man is quite insane. He wouldn't know how to create a maggot, and he creates Gods by the dozen."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"Marriage is like a cage one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside equally desperate to get out."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of the mind is irreparable."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"Riches, like glory or heath, have no more beauty or pleasure than their possessor is pleased to lend them."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"The finest lives, in my opinion, are those who rank in the common model, and with the human race, but without miracle, without extravagance."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"The greatist thing in the world is for a man to know how to be himself."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"The plainest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness: her state is like that of things in the regions above the moon, always clear and serene"
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"The want of goods is easily repaired, but the poverty of the soul is irreparable."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"There is no course of life so weak and sottish as that which is managed by order, method, and discipline."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"There never were, in the world, two opinions alike, no more than two hairs, or two grains the most universal quality is diversity."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"To philosophize is to doubt"
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"To philosophize is nothing else than to prepare oneself for death."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"Virtue craves a steep and thorny path."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"We are born to inquire into truth it belongs to a greater to possess it."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"What harm cause not those huge draughts or pictures which wanton youth with chalk or coals draw in each passage, wall or stairs of our great houses, whence a cruel contempt of our natural store is bred in them?"
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"Wit is a dangerous weapon, even to the possessor, if he knows not how to use it discreetly"
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"But when all is summed up, a man never speaks of himself without losing thereby. His self-accusations are always believed; his slef-praise disbelieved."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, The art of Conversing
"It is a custom of our justice to condemn some as a warning to others. To condemn them because they have done wrong would be stupidity, as Plato says. For what is done cannot be undone. But they are condemned that they may not go wrong again in the same way, or that others may avoid following their example. We do not correct the man we hang; we correct others through him. I do the same...."
by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, The art of Conversing


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