Michel de Montaigne Quotes - Page 27

• I would rather produce my passions than brood over them at my expense; they grow languid when they have vent and expression. It is better that their point should operate outwardly than be turned against us.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Passion, Expression, Should

  Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.543, Stanford University Press

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• In my youth I studied for ostentation; later, a little to gain wisdom; now, for recreation; never for gain.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Education, Self, Littles

  Michel de Montaigne (1976). “The Complete Essays of Montaigne”

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• He was doubtless an understanding Fellow that said, there was no happy Marriage but betwixt a blind Wife and a deaf Husband.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Husband, Wife, Understanding

  Michel de Montaigne, Charles Cotton (1711). “Essays of Michael Seigneur de Montaigne: In Three Books with Marginal Notes and Quotations. And an Account of the Author's Life. With a Short Character of the Author and Translator,”, p.117

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• We call comeliness a mischance in the first respect, which belongs principally to the face.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Beauty, Faces, Firsts

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• Long life, and short, are by death made all one; for there is no long, nor short, to things that are no more.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Long, Life And Death, Long Life

  Michel de Montaigne (2015). “Montaigne's Essays: Top Essays”, p.109, 谷月社

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• There is some shadow of delight and delicacy which smiles upon and flatters us even in the very lap of melancholy.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Happiness, Shadow, Lap

  Michel de Montaigne (1872). “All the Essays of Michael Seigneur de Montaigne”, p.567

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• Is it reasonable that even the arts should take advantage of and profit by our natural stupidity and feebleness of mind?

  Michel de Montaigne

  Art, Stupidity, Mind

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• The first distinction among men, and the first consideration that gave one precedence over another, was doubtless the advantage of beauty.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Beauty, Men, Firsts

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• Stupidity and wisdom meet in the same centre of sentiment and resolution, in the suffering of human accidents.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Stupid, Suffering, Resolution

  Michel de Montaigne (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Michel de Montaigne (Illustrated)”, p.547, Delphi Classics

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• How often, being moved under a false cause, if the person offending makes a good defense and presents us with a just excuse, are we angry against truth and innocence itself?

  Michel de Montaigne

  Anger, Offending, Defense

  Michel de Montaigne (2015). “Essays of Montaigne”, p.849, Xist Publishing

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• God is favorable to those whom he makes to die by degrees; 'tis the only benefit of old age. The last death will be so much the less painful: it will kill but a quarter of a man or but half a one at most.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Death, Men, Age

  Michel de Montaigne (1872). “All the Essays of Michael Seigneur de Montaigne”, p.880

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• It is an injustice that an old, broken, half-dead father should enjoy alone, in a corner of his hearth, possessions that would suffice for the advancement and maintenance of many children.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Children, Father, Broken

  Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.280, Stanford University Press

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• Virtue cannot be followed but for herself, and if one sometimes borrows her mask to some other purpose, she presently pulls it away again.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Purpose, Sometimes, Virtue

  Michel de Montaigne (2015). “Montaigne's Essays: Top Essays”, p.370, 谷月社

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• We every day and every hour say things of another that we might more properly say of ourselves, could we but apply our observations to our own concerns.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Criticism, Might, Hours

  Michel de Montaigne (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Michel de Montaigne (Illustrated)”, p.630, Delphi Classics

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• The diversity of physical arguments and opinions embraces all sorts of methods.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Diversity, Opinion, Argument

  Michel de Montaigne (1872). “All the Essays of Michael Seigneur de Montaigne”, p.868

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• The memory represents to us not what we choose but what it pleases.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Memories, Please, Our Memories

  Michel de Montaigne, Roger Ariew (1987). “Apology for Raymond Sebond”, p.56, Hackett Publishing

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• Men do not know the natural infirmity of their mind: it does nothing but ferret and quest, and keeps incessantly whirling around, building up and becoming entangled in its own work, like silkworms, and is suffocated in it. A mouse in a pitch barrel...thinks it notices from a distance some sort of glimmer of imaginary light and truth; but while running toward it, it is crossed by so many difficulties and obstacles, and diverted by so many new quests, that it strays from the road, bewildered.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Running, Distance, Men

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• There is nothing in which a horse's power is better revealed than in a neat, clean stop.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Horse, Clean, Neat

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• If to take up books were to take them in, and if to see them were to consider them, and to run through them were to grasp them, I should be wrong to make myself out quite as ignorant as I say I am.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Running, Book, Ignorant

  Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”

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• Wonder is the foundation of all philosophy, inquiry the progress, ignorance the end.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Philosophy, Ignorance, Progress

  Michel de Montaigne (1866). “Works of Michael de Montaigne: Comprising His Essays, Journey Into Italy, and Letters”, p.355

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• The world always looks straights ahead; as for me, I turn my gaze inward, I fix it there and keep it busy. Everyone looks in front of him: as for me, I look inside me: I have no business but with myself; I continually observe myself, I take stock of myself, I taste myself. Others...they always go forward; as for me, I roll about in myself.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Inward, Looks, World

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• Not because Socrates said so,... I look upon all men as my compatriots.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Men, Looks, Look Up

  Michel de Montaigne (1866). “Works of Michael de Montaigne: Comprising His Essays, Journey Into Italy, and Letters”, p.280

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• Few men have been admired of their familiars.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Men, Has Beens

  Michel de Montaigne (1603). “Essayes”, p.48

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• We are born to inquire into truth; it belongs to a greater to possess it

  Michel de Montaigne

  Born, Greater

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

  Michel de Montaigne

  People, Too Much, Civility

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