"The least strained and most natural ways of the soul are the most beautiful; the best occupations are the least forced."
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Quote collection
Michel de Montaigne quotes (page 21 of 49)
979 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Amongst all other vices there is none I hate more than cruelty, both by nature and judgment, as the extremest of all vices."
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"We have more poets than judges and interpreters of poetry. It is easier to write an indifferent poem than to understand a good one. There is, indeed, a certain low and moderate sort of poetry, that a man may well enough judge by certain rules of art; but the true, supreme, and divine poesy is equally above all rules and reason. And whoever discerns the beauty of it with the most assured and most steady sight sees no more than the quick reflection of a flash of lightning."
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"Human understanding is marvellously enlightened by daily conversation with men, for we are, otherwise, compressed and heaped up in ourselves, and have our sight limited to the length of our own noses."
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"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."
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"We owe subjection and obedience to all our kings, whether good or bad, alike, for that has respect unto their office; but as to esteem and affection, these are only due to their virtue."
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"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."
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"The soul that has no established aim loses itself"
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"Those things that are dearest to us have cost us the most."
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"Experience has further taught me this, that we ruin ourselves by impatience."
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"Every one is well or ill at ease, according as he finds himself! not he whom the world believes, but he who believes himself to be so, is content; and in him alone belief gives itself being and reality"
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"Wisdom is a solid and entire building, of which every piece keeps its place and bears its mark."
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"Decency, not to dare to do that in public which it is decent enough to do in private."
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"A man must live in the world and make the best of it, such as it is."
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"No man is a hero to his own valet."
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"There is nothing so extreme that is not allowed by the custom of some nation or other."
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"Petty vexations may at times be petty, but still they are vexations. The smallest and most inconsiderable annoyances are the most piercing. As small letters weary the eye most, so the smallest affairs disturb us most."
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"A learned man is not learned in all things; but a sufficient man is sufficient throughout, even to ignorance itself."
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"No man profiteth but by the loss of others."
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"Traveling through the world produces a marvelous clarity in the judgment of men. We are all of us confined and enclosed within ourselves, and see no farther than the end of our nose. This great world is a mirror where we must see ourselves in order to know ourselves. There are so many different tempers, so many different points of view, judgments, opinions, laws and customs to teach us to judge wisely on our own, and to teach our judgment to recognize its imperfection and natural weakness."
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