Michel de Montaigne Quotes - Page 7

• It is in the enjoyment and not in mere possession that makes for happiness.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Possession, Enjoyment, Mere

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• No spiritual mind remains within itself; it is always aspiring and going beyond its own strength.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Spiritual, Mind, Remains

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• Things seem greater by imagination than they are in effect.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Imagination, Effects, Greater

  Michel de Montaigne (2015). “Essays of Montaigne”, p.1305, Xist Publishing

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• The wise man should withdraw his soul within, out of the crowd, and keep it in freedom and power to judge things freely; but as for externals, he should wholly follow the accepted fashions and forms.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Wise, Wisdom, Fashion

  Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.86, Stanford University Press

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• It is the mind that maketh good or ill, That maketh wretch or happy, rich or poor.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Attitude, Fear, Rich Or Poor

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

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• Greatness of soul consists not so much in soaring high and in pressing forward, as in knowing how to adapt and limit oneself.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Greatness, Knowing, Soul

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• I study myself more than any other subject. That is my metaphysics, that is my physics.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Study, Physics, Metaphysics

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• If falsehood, like truth, had but one face, we would be more on equal terms. For we would consider the contrary of what the liar said to be certain. But the opposite of truth has a hundred thousand faces and an infinite field.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Wisdom, Honesty, Liars

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

  Michel de Montaigne

  Truth, Honesty, Men

  Michel de Montaigne (1872). “All the Essays of Michael Seigneur de Montaigne”, p.547

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• To compose our character is our duty, not to compose books, and to win, not battles and provinces, but order and tranquility in our conduct. Our great and glorious masterpiece is to live appropriately. All other things, ruling, hoarding, building, are only little appendages and props, at most.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Book, Character, Winning

  Michel de Montaigne (1948). “Selections from the essays of Michel Eyquem de Montaigne”

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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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• I consider myself an average man, except in the fact that I consider myself an average man.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Men, Average, Identity

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• People of our time are so formed for agitation and ostentation that goodness, moderation, equability, constancy, and such quiet and obscure qualities are no longer felt.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Business, People, Society

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• The human face is a weak guarantee; yet it deserves some consideration. And if I had to whip the wicked, I would do so more severely to those who belied and betrayed the promises that nature had implanted on their brows; I would punish malice more harshly when it was hidden under a kindly appearance.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Deception, Promise, Wicked

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• Virtue rejects facility to be her companion. She requires a craggy, rough and thorny way.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Way, Virtue, Companion

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• Things are not bad in themselves, but our cowardice makes them so.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Cowardice

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

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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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• Laws are often made by fools, and even more often by men who fail in equity because they hate equality: but always by men, vain authorities who can resolve nothing.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Hate, Men, Law

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• If others surpass you in knowledge, in charm, in strength, in fortune, you have other causes to blame for it; but if you yield tothem in stoutness of heart you have only yourself to blame.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Heart, Yield, Self

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

  Michel de Montaigne

  Inspirational, Wise, Wisdom

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

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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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• There is nothing of evil in life for him who rightly comprehends that death is no evil; to know how to die delivers us from all subjection and constraint.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Death, Evil, Constraints

  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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• We find our energies are actually cramped when we are overanxious to succeed.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Balance, Energy, Succeed

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• No doctor takes pleasure in the health even of his friends.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Doctors, Pleasure

  Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.77, Stanford University Press

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• Whenever a new finding is reported to the world people say - It is probably not true. Later on, when the reliability of a new finding has been fully confirmed, people say - OK, it may be true but it has no real significance. At last, when even the significance of the finding is obvious to everybody, people say - Well, it might have some significance, but the idea is not new.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Real, Ideas, People

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