Michel de Montaigne
Man (in good earnest) is a marvellous vain, fickle, and unstable subject, and on whom it is very hard to form any certain and uniform judgment.Collection: Men
In the examples that I here bring in of what I have [read], heard, done or said, I have refrained from daring to alter even the smallest and most indifferent circumstances. My conscience falsifies not an iota; for my knowledge I cannot answer.Collection: Change
Is there a polity better ordered, the offices better distributed, and more inviolably observed and maintained, than that of bees?Collection: Office
It is probable that the principal credit of miracles, visions, enchantments, and such extraordinary occurrences comes from the power of imagination, acting principally upon the minds of the common people, which are softer.Collection: Imagination
What am I to choose? "Choose what you please, as long as you choose." There you have a foolish answer, which seems to be the outcome, however, of all Dogmatism, which will not allow us to be ignorant of that which we are ignorant.Collection: Ignorance
The utility of living consists not in the length of days, but in the use of time; a man may have lived long, and yet lived but a little.Collection: Men
Life in itself is neither good nor evil, it is the place of good and evil, according to what you make it.Collection: Positive
The middle sort of historians (of which the most part are) spoil all; they will chew our meat for us.Collection: History
Might I have had my own will, I would not have married Wisdom herself, if she would have had me.Collection: Might
Since philosophy is the art which teaches us how to live, and since children need to learn it as much as we do at other ages, why do we not instruct them in it? .. But in truth I know nothing about the philosophy of education except this: that the greatest and the most important difficulty known to human learning seems to lie in that area which treats how to bring up children and how to educate them.Collection: Art
Since we cannot match it let us take our revenge by abusing it.Collection: Revenge
In truth, the care and expense of our fathers aims only at furnishing our heads with knowledge; of judgement and virtue, little news.Collection: Father
Those that will combat use and custom by the strict rules of grammar do but jestCollection: Use
The relish of good and evil depends in a great measure upon the opinion we have of them.Collection: Evil
No wonder, said an Ancient, that chance has so much power over us, since it is by chance that we live.Collection: Chance
Who is it that does not voluntarily exchange his health, his repose, and his very life for reputation and glory? The most useless, frivolous, and false coin that passes current among us.Collection: Doe
To how many blockheads of my time has a cold and taciturn demeanor procured the credit of prudence and capacity!Collection: Credit
Cowardice is the mother of cruelty.Collection: Mother
I do not teach. I relate.Collection: Education
We do not correct the man we hang; we correct others by him.Collection: Men
Friendship is the highest degree of perfection in society.Collection: Friendship
Courtesy is a science of the highest importance. It is...opening a door that we may derive instruction from the example of others, and at the same time enabling us to benefit them by our example, if there be anything in our character worthy of imitation.Collection: Character
If I were a maker of books I should compile a register, with comments, of different deaths. He who should teach people to die, would teach them to live.Collection: Death
When a Roman was returning from a trip, he used to send someone ahead to let his wife know, so as not to surprise her in the act.Collection: Marriage
A wise man loses nothing, if he but save himself.Collection: Wise
If you have known how to compose your life, you have done a great deal more than the person who knows how to compose a book. You have done more than the one who has taken cities and empires.Collection: Life
Habituation puts to sleep the eye of our judgment.Collection: Sleep
There is as much difference between us and ourselves as there is between us and others.Collection: Differences
Learning is a good medicine: but no medicine is powerful enough to preserve itself from taint and corruption independently of defects in the jar that it is kept in. One man sees clearly but does not see straight: consequently he sees what is good but fails to follow it; he sees knowledge and does not use it.Collection: Powerful
We are never present with, but always beyond ourselves; fear, desire, hope, still push us on toward the future.Collection: Optimism
Greatness of soul consists not so much in soaring high and in pressing forward, as in knowing how to adapt and limit oneself.Collection: Greatness
The worst condition of humans is when they lose knowledge and control of themselves.Collection: Knowledge
The most evident token and apparent sign of true wisdom is a constant and unconstrained rejoicing.Collection: Rejoice
When all is summed up, a man never speaks of himself without loss; his accusations of himself are always believed; his praises never.Collection: Loss
Speaking is half his that speaks, and half his that hears.Collection: Inspirational
There is no man so good that if he placed all his actions and thoughts under the scrutiny of the laws, he would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.Collection: Men
It is in vain that we get upon stilts, for once on them, it is still with our legs that we must walk. And on the highest throne in the world we are still sitting on our own ass.Collection: Vanity
Those things that are dearest to us have cost us the most.Collection: Cost
I consider myself an average man, except in the fact that I consider myself an average man.Collection: Men
And to bring in a new word by the head and shoulders, they leave out the old one.Collection: Shoulders
A man must either imitate the vicious or hate them.Collection: Hate
Silence and modesty are very valuable qualities in conversation.Collection: Silence
I say that male and female are cast in the same mold; except for education and habits, the difference is not great.Collection: Education
The thing in the world I am most afraid of is fear.Collection: Fear
Every one's true worship was that which he found in use in the place where he chanced to be.Collection: Use
The human face is a weak guarantee; yet it deserves some consideration. And if I had to whip the wicked, I would do so more severely to those who belied and betrayed the promises that nature had implanted on their brows; I would punish malice more harshly when it was hidden under a kindly appearance.Collection: Deception
If faces were not alike, we could not distinguish men from beasts; if they were not different, we could not tell one man from another.Collection: Men
Our thoughts are always elsewhere; we are stayed and supported by the hope for a better life, or by the hope that our children will turn out well, or that our name will be famous in the future, or that we shall escape the evils of this life, or that vengeance threatens those who are the cause of our death.Collection: Hope
The plague of man is boasting of his knowledge.Collection: Men