Michel de Montaigne Quotes

• The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them... Whether you find satisfaction in life depends not on your tale of years, but on your will.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Lying, Satisfaction In Life, Years

  Attributed to "Essais" by Michel de Montaigne, Book I, Ch. 20, 1595.

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• My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Inspirational, Funny, Life

  Attributed to "Essais" by Michel de Montaigne, 1595.

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• We must learn to endure what we cannot avoid. Our life is composed, like the harmony of the world, of contrary things, also of different tones, sweet and harsh, sharp and flat, soft and loud. If a musician liked only one kind, what would he have to say?

  Michel de Montaigne

  Life, Sweet, Diversity

  Michel de Montaigne (1963). “Montaigne's Essays and Selected Writings”

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• The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Respect, Self Esteem, Being Alone

  Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.178, Stanford University Press

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

  Michel de Montaigne

  Education, Teaching, Learning

  Attributed to "Essais" by Michel de Montaigne, 1595.

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• Don't discuss yourself, for you are bound to lose; if you belittle yourself, you are believed; if you praise yourself, you are disbelieved.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Praise, Belittle, Ifs

  Attributed to "Essais" by Michel de Montaigne, Book III, Ch. 8, 1595.

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• There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Wisdom, Agreement, Political

  Attributed to "Essais" by Michel de Montaigne, 1595.

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• God might grant us riches, honours, life, and even health, to our own hurt; for every thing that is pleasing to us is not always good for us. If he sends us death, or an increase of sickness, instead of a cure, Vvrga tua et baculus, tuus ipsa me consolata sunt. "Thy rod and thy staff have comforted me," he does it by the rule of his providence, which better and more certainly discerns what is proper for us than we can do; and we ought to take it in good part, as coming from a wise and most friendly hand.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Wise, Hurt, Hands

  Michel de Montaigne (1849). “Works: Comprising His Essays, Letters, and Journey Through Germany and Italy; with Notes, Notices, Etc”, p.295

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• Stubborn and ardent clinging to one's opinion is the best proof of stupidity.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Stupid, Stubborn, Opinion

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

  Michel de Montaigne

  Fear, Happy Life, Men

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• 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.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Life, Humility, Men

  Michel de Montaigne, Marvin Lowenthal (1999). “The Autobiography of Michel de Montaigne: Comprising the Life of the Wisest Man of His Times : His Childhood, Youth, and Prime : His Adventures in Love and Marriage, at Court, and in Office, War, Revolution, and Plague : His Travels at Home and Abroad : His Habits, Tastes, Whims, and Opinions”, p.210, David R. Godine Publisher

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• Love is like playing the piano. First you must learn to play by the rules, then you must forget the rules and play from your heart. If I were pressed to say why I loved him, I feel that my only reply could be: Because it was he, because it was I.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Heart, Love Is, Piano

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• The most fruitful and natural exercise for our minds is, in my opinion, conversation.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Exercise, Mind, Opinion

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• The most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Happiness, Cheerful, Certain

  Michel de Montaigne, Bayle St. John (1866). “Essays [tr. by Cotton”, p.235

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• ~The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them ~

  Michel de Montaigne

  Lying, Satisfaction In Life, Use

  'Essais' (1580) bk. 1, ch. 20

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• Man is quite insane. He wouldn?t know how to create a maggot, and he creates Gods by the dozen.

  Michel de Montaigne

  God, Crazy, Men

  'Essais' (1580) bk. 2, ch. 12

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• When I quote others I do so in order to express my own ideas more clearly.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Inspirational, Golf, Order

  Michel de Montaigne (1946). “The essays”

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• To begin depriving death of its greatest advantage over us, let us adopt a way clean contrary to that common one; let us deprive death of its strangeness, let us frequent it, let us get used to it; let us have nothing more often in mind than death... We do not know where death awaits us: so let us wait for it everywhere." "To practice death is to practice freedom. A man who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Men, Practice, Waiting

  Michel de Montaigne (1991). “The essays of Michel de Montaigne”, Lane, Allen

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• Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Courage

  Attributed to "Essais" by Michel de Montaigne, 1595.

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• Every man has within himself the entire human condition

  Michel de Montaigne

  Men, Human Condition, Humans

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• We can be knowledgeable with other men's knowledge, but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Wise, Wisdom, Smart

  Attributed to "Essais" by Michel de Montaigne, Book I, Ch. 25, 1595.

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

  Michel de Montaigne

  Confidence, Philosophical, Goodness

  Attributed to "Essais" by Michel de Montaigne, Book I, Ch. 14, 1595.

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• It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Communication, Knowledge, Brain

  Essays Bk 1 (transl. D. M. Frame)

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• When all is summed up, a man never speaks of himself without loss; his accusations of himself are always believed; his praises never.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Loss, Men, Lost Friendship

  Michel de Montaigne “Annotated Essays of Michel de Montaigne with English Grammar Exercises: by Michel de Montaigne (Author), Robert Powell (Editor)”, Powell Publications, LLC

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• On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Inspiration, Kids, Humility

  Essais bk. 3, ch. 13 (1580)

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