Quotes By Michel De Montaigne

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

My trade and art is to live.

'Tis the sharpness of our mind that gives the edge to our pains and pleasures.

Every man bears the whole stamp of the human condition.

Few men have been admired of their familiars.

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.

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.

We can be knowledgable with other men's knowledge but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom.

A straight oar looks bent in the water. What matters is not merely that we see things but how we see them.

An untempted woman cannot boast of her chastity.

If there is such a thing as a good marriage, it is because it resembles friendship rather than love.

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

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

Confidence in the goodness of another is good proof of one's own goodness.

Unless a man feels he has a good enough memory, he should never venture to lie.

It is a sign of contraction of the mind when it is content, or of weariness. A spirited mind never stops within itself; it is always aspiring and going beyond its strength.

Fame and tranquility can never be bedfellows.

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

When I play with my cat, who knows whether she is not amusing herself with me more than I with her.

Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself.

Love to his soul gave eyes; he knew things are not as they seem. The dream is his real life; the world around him is the dream.

If you don't know how to die, don't worry; Nature will tell you what to do on the spot, fully and adequately. She will do this job perfectly for you; don't bother your head about it.

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

Of all our infirmities, the most savage is to despise our being.

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

No pleasure has any savor for me without communication.

If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I was I.

A wise man sees as much as he ought, not as much as he can.

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.

Nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know.