"It is not my deeds that I write down, it is myself, my essence."
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Quote collection
Michel de Montaigne quotes (page 38 of 49)
979 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Few men have been admired of their familiars."
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"I determine nothing; I do not comprehend things; I suspend judgment; I examine."
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"If my intentions were not to be read in my eyes and voice, I should not have survived so long without quarrels and without harm, seeing the indiscreet freedom with which I say, right or wrong, whatever comes into my head."
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"Who feareth to suffer suffereth already, because he feareth."
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"In the education of children there is nothing like alluring the interest and affection; otherwise you only make so many asses laden with books."
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"It is indeed the boundary of life, beyond which we are not to pass; which the law of nature has pitched for a limit not to be exceeded."
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"Our zeal works wonders, whenever it supports our inclination toward hatred, cruelty, ambition."
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"Let every foot have its own shoe."
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"The vulgar and common esteem is seldom happy in hitting right; and I am much mistaken if, amongst the writings of my time, the worst are not those which have most gained the popular applause."
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"Old age is a lease nature only signs as a particular favor, and it may be, to one, only in the space of two or three ages; and then with a pass to boot, to carry him through, all the traverses and difficulties she has strewed in the way of his long career."
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"There is no passion that so much transports men from their right judgments as anger. No one would demur upon punishing a judge with death who should condemn a criminal upon the account of his own choler; why then should fathers and pedants be any more allowed to whip and chastise children in their anger? It is then no longer correction bat revenge. Chastisement is instead of physic to children; and should we suffer a physician who should be animated against and enraged at his patient?"
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"I have here only made a nosegay of culled flowers, and have brought nothing of my own but the thread that tied them together."
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"A speech belongs half to the speaker and half to the listener."
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"Travelling through the world produces a marvellous 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."
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"Of all human and ancient opinions concerning religion, that seems to me the most likely and most excusable, that acknowledged God as an incomprehensible power, the original and preserver of all things, all goodness, all perfection, receiving and taking in good part the honour and reverence that man paid him, under what method, name, or ceremonies soever."
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"Some, either from being glued to vice by a natural attachment, or from long habit, no longer recognize its ugliness."
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"The pleasure we hold in esteem for the course of our lives ought to have a greater share of our time dedicated to it; we should refuse no occasion nor omit any opportunity of drinking, and always have it in our minds."
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"A volunteer, you assign yourself specific roles and risks according to your judgement of their brilliance and importance, and you see when life itself may be justifiably devoted to them."
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"The world always looks straights ahead; as for me, I turn my gaze inward, I fix it there and keep it busy. Everyone looks in front of him: as for me, I look inside me: I have no business but with myself; I continually observe myself, I take stock of myself, I taste myself. Others...they always go forward; as for me, I roll about in myself."
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