Michel de Montaigne Quotes

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

Wise, Made, She

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

Crime, Criminal, Witnessed

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

Faith, Today, Tell

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

Mind, Others, Speak

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

Truth, Forward, Put

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

Him, Cannot, Tell

In nine lifetimes, you'll never know as much about your cat as your cat knows about you.
Michel de Montaigne

Knows, Cat, Lifetimes

In true education, anything that comes to our hand is as good as a book: the prank of a page- boy, the blunder of a servant, a bit of table talk - they are all part of the curriculum.
Michel de Montaigne

Education, Good, True

It is an absolute and virtually divine perfection to know how to enjoy our being rightfully.
Michel de Montaigne

Enjoy, Perfection, Divine

It should be noted that children at play are not playing about; their games should be seen as their most serious-minded activity.
Michel de Montaigne

Children, Play, Playing

Let us permit nature to have her way. She understands her business better than we do.
Michel de Montaigne

Nature, Business, Her

The ceaseless labour of your life is to build the house of death.
Michel de Montaigne

Life, Death, House

The confidence in another man's virtue is no light evidence of a man's own, and God willingly favors such a confidence.
Michel de Montaigne

God, Confidence, Light

The entire lower world was created in the likeness of the higher world. All that exists in the higher world appears like an image in this lower world; yet all this is but One.
Michel de Montaigne

Image, Higher, Exists

The finest souls are those that have the most variety and suppleness.
Michel de Montaigne

Souls, Finest, Variety

The most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness.
Michel de Montaigne

The public weal requires that men should betray, and lie, and massacre.
Michel de Montaigne

Men, Lie, Betray

The strangest, most generous, and proudest of all virtues is true courage.
Michel de Montaigne

Courage, True, Generous

The way of the world is to make laws, but follow custom.
Michel de Montaigne

Follow, Laws, Custom

The world is all a carcass and vanity, The shadow of a shadow, a play And in one word, just nothing.
Michel de Montaigne

Nothing, Play, Word

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.
Michel de Montaigne

Find, Ugly, Both

There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.
Michel de Montaigne

Failure, Triumphant, Victories

There is little less trouble in governing a private family than a whole kingdom.
Michel de Montaigne

Family, Whole, Less

There is no desire more natural than the desire for knowledge.
Michel de Montaigne

Knowledge, Desire, Natural

There is not much less vexation in the government of a private family than in the managing of an entire state.
Michel de Montaigne

Family, Government, Less

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Biography

Nationality: French

Type: Philosopher

Born: February 28, 1533

Died: September 13, 1592

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Cite this Page: Citation

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