Famous Quotes by Michel de Montaigne
Below are famous quotes by Michel de Montaigne - French essayist (1533 - 1592).
A man of understanding has lost nothing, if he has himself.
Ambition is not a vice of little people.
Fashion is the science of appearances, and it inspires one with the desire to seem rather than to be.
He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak.
He who establishes his argument by noise and command, shows that his reason is weak.
He who has not a good memory should never take upon himself the trade of lying.
He who is not very strong in memory should not meddle with lying.
I believe it to be true that dreams are the true interpreters of our inclinations; but there is art required to sort and understand them.
I care not so much what I am to others as what I am to myself.
I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.
I quote others only in order the better to express myself.
In the education of children there is nothing like alluring the interest and affection, otherwise you only make so many asses laden with books.
It is easier to write an indifferent poem than to understand a good one.
It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others
Malice sucks up the greater part of her own venom, and poisons herself.
Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a flea, yet he makes gods by the dozens.
Man is certainly stark mad. He cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens.
No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately.
Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it.
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.
Since we cannot match it let us take our revenge by abusing it.
So it is with minds. Unless you keep them busy with some definite subject that will bridle and control them, they throw themselves in disorder hither and yon in the vague field of imagination. ..And there is no mad or idle fancy that they do no bring forth in the agitation.
The art of dining well is no slight art, the pleasure not a slight pleasure.
The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.
The most profound joy has more of gravity than of gaiety in it.
There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.
There is as much difference between us and ourselves as there is between us and others.
There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees.
There is nothing more notable in Socrates than that he found time, when he was an old man, to learn music and dancing, and thought it time well spent.
To philosophize is to doubt.
We have more poets thatnjudges and interpreters of poetry. It is easier to write an indifferent poem that to understand a good one.
When all is summed up, a man never speaks of himself without loss; his accusations of himself are always believed; his praises never.
When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind.
Wise men have more to learn of fools than fools of wise men.
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