Michel de Montaigne Quotes - Page 38

• Seneca's virtue shows forth so live and vigorous in his writings, and the defense is so clear there against some of these imputations, as that of his wealth and excessive spending, that I would not believe any testimony to the contrary.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Believe, Writing, Defense

  Michel de Montaigne (1979). “Essays”

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• The sage says that all that is under heaven incurs the same law and the same fate.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Fate, Law, Heaven

  "Essais" by Michel de Montaigne, Book II, Ch. 12, 1595.

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• The laws keep up their credit, not by being just, but because they are laws; 'tis the mystic foundation of their authority; they have no other, and it well answers their purpose. They are often made by fools; still oftener by men who, out of hatred to equality, fail in equity; but always by men, vain and irresolute authors.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Men, Law, Hatred

  Michel de Montaigne (1877). “The Essays of Montaigne”, p.386

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• It is a monstrous thing that I will say, but I will say it all the same: I find in many things more restraint and order in my morals than in my opinions, and my lust less depraved than my reason.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Order, Lust, Opinion

  Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.312, Stanford University Press

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• There is indeed a certain sense of gratification when we do a good deed that gives us inward satisfaction, and a generous pride that accompanies a good conscience…These testimonies of a good conscience are pleasant; and such a natural pleasure is very beneficial to us; it is the only payment that can never fail. “On Repentance

  Michel de Montaigne

  Pride, Giving, Inward

  Michel de Montaigne, John Michael Cohen (1959). “Essays”, Penguin Classics

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• When we see a man with bad shoes, we say it is no wonder, if he is a shoemaker.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Men, Shoes, Wonder

  "Essays", Book I, Chapter XXIV, as quoted in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations, p. 705-06, 1922.

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• The only good histories are those that have been written by the persons themselves who commanded in the affairs whereof they write.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Writing, Affair, Good History

  Michel de Montaigne (1877). “Selected Essays”, p.48, Courier Corporation

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• How many we know who have fled the sweetness of a tranquil life in their homes, among the friends, to seek the horror of uninhabitable deserts; who have flung themselves into humiliation, degradation, and the contempt of the world, and have enjoyed these and even sought them out.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Home, Desert, Degradation

  Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.42, Stanford University Press

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• In the examples that I here bring in of what I have [read], heard, done or said, I have refrained from daring to alter even the smallest and most indifferent circumstances. My conscience falsifies not an iota; for my knowledge I cannot answer.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Change, Knowledge, Example

  Michel de Montaigne (1946). “The essays”

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• The religion of my doctor or my lawyer cannot matter. That consideration has nothing in common with the functions of the friendship they owe me.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Doctors, Matter, Common

  Essays Bk l, Ch. 28 'Of Friendship'

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• There is perhaps no more obvious vanity than to write of it so vainly.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Writing, Vanity, Obvious

  Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.721, Stanford University Press

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• 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, Men

  Michel de Montaigne (1912*). “The Essays of Michel de Montaigne”

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• The pleasure we hold in esteem for the course of our lives ought to have a greater share of our time dedicated to it; we should refuse no occasion nor omit any opportunity of drinking, and always have it in our minds.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Drinking, Opportunity, Mind

  Michel de Montaigne (2015). “Montaigne's Essays: Top Essays”, p.376, 谷月社

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• To know how to live is my trade and my art.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Art, Trade, Know How

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• I see this evident, that we willingly accord to piety only the services that flatter our passions.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Passion, Flattery, Accord

  Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.323, Stanford University Press

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• Marriage can be compared to a cage: birds outside it despair to enter, and birds within, to escape.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Marriage, Wedding, Bird

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• The concern that some women show at the absence of their husbands, does not arise from their not seeing them and being with them, but from their apprehension that their husbands are enjoying pleasures in which they do not participate, and which, from their being at a distance, they have not the power of interrupting.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Marriage, Husband, Distance

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• Socrates, who was a perfect model in all great qualities, ... hit on a body and face so ugly and so incongruous with the beauty of his soul, he who was so madly in love with beauty.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Perfect, Soul, Quality

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• An untempted woman cannot boast of her chastity.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Chastity, Boast

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

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• No man is a hero to his own valet.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Hero, Men, Political

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• The clatter of arms drowns out the voice of law.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Law, Voice, Political

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• Peoples nurtured on freedom and self-government judge any other form of polity to be deformed and unnatural. Those who are used to monarchy do the same .

  Michel de Montaigne

  Self, Government, Judging

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

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• There is a huge gulf between the man who follows the conventions and laws of his country and the man who sets out to regiment them and to change them.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Country, Men, Law

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

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• We must learn to suffer what we cannot evade; our life, like the harmony of the world, is composed of contrary things, and one part is no less necessary than the other.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Suffering, World, Harmony

  Michel de Montaigne (2015). “Montaigne's Essays: Top Essays”, p.1115, 谷月社

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• Can anything be imagined so ridiculous that this miserable and wretched creature, who is not so much as master of himself, but subject to the injuries of all things, should call himself master and emperor of the world, of which he has not power to know the least part, much less to command the whole?

  Michel de Montaigne

  World, Ridiculous, Miserable

  Michel de Montaigne, William Hazlitt (1860). “The Works of Michael de Montaigne: Comprising His Essays, Letters, and Journey Through Germany and Italy”, p.231

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