Best 905 quotes of Michel De Montaigne on MyQuotes

Adrian, the Emperor, exclaimed incessantly, when dying, "That the crowd of physicians had killed him.

Aesop, that great man, saw his master making water as he walked. "What!" he said, "Must we void ourselves as we run?" Use our timeas best we may, yet a great part of it will still be idly and ill spent.

A father is very miserable who has no other hold on his children's affection than the need they have of his assistance, if that can be called affection.

A foreign war is a lot milder than a civil war.

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.

After they had accustomed themselves at Rome to the spectacles of the slaughter of animals, they proceeded to those of the slaughter of men, to the gladiators.

Age imprints more wrinkles a in the mind, than it does in the face, and souls are never, or very rarely seen, that in growing old do not smell sour and musty. Man moves all together, both towards his perfection and decay.

Age imprints more wrinkles in the mind than it does on the face.

A good marriage ... is a sweet association in life: full of constancy, trust, and an infinite number of useful and solid services and mutual obligations.

A good marriage would be between a blind wife and a deaf husband.

A hair shirt does not always render those chaste who wear it.

A lady could not boast of her chastity who was never tempted.

A learned man is not learned in all things; but a sufficient man is sufficient throughout, even to ignorance itself.

A liar would be brave toward God, while he is a coward toward men; for a lie faces God, and shrinks from man.

A little of everything and nothing thoroughly, after the French fashion.

A little folly is desirable in him that will not be guilty of stupidity.

All general judgments are loose and imperfect

All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed.

All opinions in the world agree in this, that pleasure is our end, although they differ as to the means of attaining it.

All other knowledge is hurtful to him who has not honesty and good-nature

All permanent decisions are made in a temporary state of mind.

All the fame you should look for in life is to have lived it quietly.

All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.

All we do is to look after the opinions and learning of others: we ought to make them our own.

Almost all the opinions we have are taken on authority and on credit.

A man is not hurt so much by what happens, as by his opinion of what happens.

A man may be humble through vainglory.

A man may by custom fortify himself against pain, shame, and suchlike accidents; but as to death, we can experience it but once, and are all apprentices when we come to it

..a man may live long, yet live very little. Satisfaction in life depends not on the number of your years, but on your will.

A man must keep a little back shop where he can be himself without reserve. In solitude alone can he know true freedom.

A man must learn to endure patiently what he cannot avoid conveniently.

A man must live in the world and make the best of it, such as it is.

A man must not always tell all, for that be folly; but what a man says should be what he thinks.

A man never speaks of himself without losing something. What he says in his disfavor is always beleived, but when he commends himself, he arouses mistrust.

A man should ever, as much as in him lieth, be ready booted to take his journey, and above all things look he have then nothing to do but with himself.

A man should think less of what he eats and more with whom he eats because no food is so satisfying as good company.

A man should keep for himself a little back shop, all his own, quite unadulterated, in which he establishes his true freedom and chief place of seclusion and solitude.

A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears.

Ambition is not a vice of little people.

Ambition is, of all other, the most contrary humor to solitude; and glory and repose are so inconsistent that they cannot possibly inhabit one and the same place; and for so much as I understand, those have only their arms and legs disengaged from the crowd, their mind and intention remain engaged behind more than ever.

Ambition sufficiently plagues her proselytes, by keeping themselves always in show, like the statue of a public place.

Amongst all other vices there is none I hate more than cruelty, both by nature and judgment, as the extremest of all vices.

Amongst so many borrowed things, am glad if I can steal one, disguising and altering it for some new service.

Among the liberal arts, let us begin with the art that liberates us.

An able reader often discovers in other people's writings perfections beyond those that the author put in or perceived, and lends them richer meanings and aspects.

An ancient father says that a dog we know is better company than a man whose language we do not understand.

And as hearbes and trees are bettered and fortified by being transplanted, so formes of speach are embellished and graced by variation.... As in our ordinary language, we shall sometimes meete with excellent phrases, and quaint metaphors, whose blithnesse fadeth through age, and colour is tarnish by to common using them.

And if nobody reads me, shall I have wasted my time, when I have beguiled so many idle hours with such pleasant and profitable reflections?

And I loathe people who find it harder to put up with a gown askew than with a soul askew and who judge a man by his bow, his bearing and his boots.

And obstinacy is the sister of constancy, at least in vigour and stability.