Michel de Montaigne Quotes - Page 14

• I love a gay and sociable wisdom, and shun harshness and austerity in behaviour, holding every surly countenance suspect.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Wisdom, Gay, Behaviour

  Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.641, Stanford University Press

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• Custom is a violent and treacherous school mistress. She, by little and lithe, slyly and unperceived, slips in the foot of her authority; but having by this gentle and humble beginning, with the benefit of time, fixed and established it, she then unmasks a furious and tyrannic countenance, against which we have no more the courage or the power so much as to lift up our eyes.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Humble, School, Eye

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• Decency, not to dare to do that in public which it is decent enough to do in private.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Enough, Dare, Decent

  Michel de Montaigne (2015). “Montaigne's Essays: Top Essays”, p.613, 谷月社

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• Our wisdom and deliberation for the most part follow the lead of chance.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Wisdom, Chance, Deliberation

  Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”

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• In order always to learn something from others (which is the finest school there can be), I observe in my travels this practice: I always steer those with whom I talk back to the things they know best.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Travel, School, Order

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• The bees pillage the flowers here and there but they make honey of them which is all their own; it is no longer thyme or marjolaine: so the pieces borrowed from others he will transform and mix up into a work all his own.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Flower, Here And There, Thyme

  "Essays", Book I, Chapter XXV, as quoted in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations, p. 598-600, 1922.

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• It is not reasonable that art should win the place of honor over our great and powerful mother Nature. We have so overloaded the beauty and richness of her works by our inventions that we have quite smothered her.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Mother, Art, Powerful

  Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.152, Stanford University Press

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• It is far more probable that our senses should deceive us, than that an old woman should be carried up a chimney on a broom stick; and that it is far less astonishing that witnesses should lie, than that witches should perform the acts that were alleged.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Lying, Atheism, Sticks

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• We are, I know not how, double in ourselves, so that what we believe we disbelieve, and cannot rid ourselves of what we condemn.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Believe, Knows

  "The Complete Works of Michael de Montaigne" edited by William Carew Hazlitt, (p. 289), 1877.

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• We perceive no charms that are not sharpened, puffed out, and inflated by artifice. Those which glide along naturally and simply easily escape a sight so gross as ours.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Sight, Human Nature, Charm

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

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• Men throw themselves on foreign assistances to spare their own, which, after all, are the only certain and sufficient ones.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Men, Self, Certain

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• Pride dwells in the thought; the tongue can have but a very little share in it.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Pride, Littles, Tongue

  Michel de Montaigne (2015). “Montaigne's Essays: Top Essays”, p.410, 谷月社

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• Presumption is our natural and original malady. The most vulnerable and frail of all creatures is man, and at the same time the most arrogant.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Men, Self, Arrogance

  Michel de Montaigne (1973). “Selections from the Essays”, Harlan Davidson

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• The thing in the world I am most afraid of is fear, and with good reason; that passion alone, in the trouble of it, exceeding all other accidents

  Michel de Montaigne

  Fear, Passion, World

  Michel de Montaigne (1853). “The Works of Michael de Montaigne: Comprising His Essays, Letters, and Journey Through Germany and Italy. With Notes from All the Commentators, Biographical and Bibliographical Notices &c., &c”, p.24

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• As for our pupils talk, let his virtue and his sense of right and wrong shine through it and have no guide but reason. Make him understand that confessing an error which he discovers in his own argument even when he alone has noticed it is an act of justice and integrity, which are the main qualities he pursues; stubbornness and rancour are vulgar qualities, visible in common souls whereas to think again, to change one's mind and to give up a bad case on the heat of the argument are rare qualities showing strength and wisdom.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Giving Up, Integrity, Educational

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• Why did I love her? Because it was her; because it was me.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Love, Heart

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• The souls of emperors and cobblers are cast in the same mold...The same reason that makes us wrangle with a neighbor creates a war betwixt princes.

  Michel de Montaigne

  War, Equality, Soul

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

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• I will follow the right side even to the fire, but excluding the fire if I can.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Integrity, Fire, Sides

  Michel de Montaigne (2013). “Michel de Montaigne: Selected Essays”, p.161, Courier Corporation

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• Repentance is no other than a recanting of the will, and opposition to our fancies, which lead us which way they please.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Fancy, Way, Repentance

  Michel de Montaigne, Bayle St. John (1866). “Essays [tr. by Cotton”, p.68

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• Disappointment and feebleness imprint upon us a cowardly and valetudinarian virtue.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Disappointment, Virtue, Cowardly

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• Judgement can do without knowledge: but not knowledge without judgement.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Judgement, Can Do

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

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• In his commerce with men I mean him to include- and that principally- those who live only in the memory of books. By means of history he will frequent those great souls of former years. If you want it to be so, history can be a waste of time; it can also be, if you want it to be so, a study bearing fruit beyond price.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Memories, Educational, Book

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

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• 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 not bring forth in the agitation.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Mad, Imagination, Mind

  Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.21, Stanford University Press

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• Love to his soul gave eyes; he knew things are not as they seem. The dream is his real life; the world around him is the dream.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Dream, Real, Eye

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

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• It should be noted that children at play are not playing about; their games should be seen as their most serious-minded activity.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Children, Playing Games, Serious

  Essais bk. 1, ch. 23 (1580)

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