Fortune, seeing that she could not make fools wise, has made them lucky.
Michel de Montaigne

He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak.
Michel de Montaigne

He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.
Michel de Montaigne

How many condemnations I have witnessed more criminal than the crime!
Michel de Montaigne

How many things we held yesterday as articles of faith which today we tell as fables.
Michel de Montaigne

I care not so much what I am to others as what I am to myself. I will be rich by myself, and not by borrowing.
Michel de Montaigne

I do myself a greater injury in lying than I do him of whom I tell a lie.
Michel de Montaigne

I do not speak the minds of others except to speak my own mind better.
Michel de Montaigne

I have never seen a greater monster or miracle in the world than myself.
Michel de Montaigne

I have often seen people uncivil by too much civility, and tiresome in their courtesy.
Michel de Montaigne

I know well what I am fleeing from but not what I am in search of.
Michel de Montaigne

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

I put forward formless and unresolved notions, as do those who publish doubtful questions to debate in the schools, not to establish the truth but to seek it.
Michel de Montaigne

I quote others only in order the better to express myself.
Michel de Montaigne

I set forth a humble and inglorious life; that does not matter. You can tie up all moral philosophy with a common and private life just as well as with a life of richer stuff. Each man bears the entire form of man's estate.
Michel de Montaigne

I speak the truth not so much as I would, but as much as I dare, and I dare a little more as I grow older.
Michel de Montaigne

I study myself more than any other subject. That is my metaphysics, that is my physics.
Michel de Montaigne

I write to keep from going mad from the contradictions I find among mankind - and to work some of those contradictions out for myself.
Michel de Montaigne

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.
Michel de Montaigne

If a man urge me to tell wherefore I loved him, I feel it cannot be expressed but by answering: Because it was he, because it was myself.
Michel de Montaigne