Quotes by Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

"I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on reason   

"Have you known how to take rest? You have done more than he who hath taken empires and cities."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on creation   

"Oh senseless man, who cannot possibly make a worm, and yet will make Gods by dozens."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on religion
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"One may disavow and disclaim vices that surprise us, and whereto our passions transport us; but those which by long habits are rooted in a strong and powerful will are not subject to contradiction. Repentance is but a denying of our will, and an opposition of our fantasies."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on repentance   

"Princes give me sufficiently if they take nothing from me, and do me much good if they do me no hurt; it is all I require of them."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on royalty   

"Whether you find satisfaction in life depends not on your tale of years, but on your will."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on action   

"True it is that she who escapeth safe and unpolluted from out the school of freedom, giveth more confidence of herself than she who comet sound out of the school of severity and restraint."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on self-confidence
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"Of all the infirmities we have, the most savage is to despise our being."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on self-pity
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"The greatest thing in the world is to know how to be self-sufficient."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on self-sufficiency   

"Few men have been admired of their familiars."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on servants   

"He who lives not to others, lives little to himself."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on service   

"After mature deliberation of counsel, the good Queen to establish a rule and immutable example unto all posterity, for the moderation and required modesty in a lawful marriage, ordained the number of six times a day as a lawful, necessary and competent limit."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on sex   

"Obstinacy is the sister of constancy, at least in vigor and stability."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on stubbornness   

"My reason is not framed to bend or stoop: my knees are."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on submission   

"Even on the most exalted throne in the world we are only sitting on our own bottom."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on success   

"Who feareth to suffer suffereth already, because he feareth."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on suffering   

"The beauty of stature is the only beauty of men."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on beauty   

"How many things served us but yesterday as articles of faith, which today we deem but fables?"

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on belief   

"Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on belief
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"Every abridgement of a good book is a fool abridged."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on books - reading   

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on candor
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"An unattempted lady could not vaunt of her chastity."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on chastity   

"The most manifest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness; her state is like that in the regions above the moon, always clear and serene."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on cheerfulness   

"The most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on cheerfulness
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"It is the part of cowardliness, and not of virtue, to seek to squat itself in some hollow lurking hole, or to hide herself under some massive tomb, thereby to shun the strokes of fortune."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on suicide   

"In the education of children there is nothing like alluring the interest and affection, otherwise you only make so many asses laden with books."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on teacher   

"Socrates thought and so do I that the wisest theory about the gods is no theory at all."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on theory   

"When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books, They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on thoughts and thinking
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"A man should ever be ready booted to take his journey."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on travel
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"I tell the truth, not as much as I would like to, but as much as I dare. I dare more and more as I grow older."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on truth   

"Those things that are dearest to us have cost us the most."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on value
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"The honor of the conquest is rated by the difficulty."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on victory   

"There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on virtue   

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on virtue   

"Virtue craves a steep and thorny path."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on virtue   

"Of all the benefits which virtue confers on us, the contempt of death is one of the greatest."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on virtue   

"From Obedience and submission comes all our virtues, and all sin is comes from self-opinion."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on virtue   

"Wise people are foolish if they cannot adapt to foolish people."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on wisdom
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"We can be knowledgeable with other men's knowledge, but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on wisdom
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"Wisdom hath her excesses, and no less need of moderation than folly."

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De on wisdom