Michel de Montaigne Quotes - Page 21

• Since I would rather make of him an able man than a learned man, I would also urge that care be taken to choose a guide with a well-made rather than a well-filled head.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Taken, Learning, Men

  Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.110, Stanford University Press

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• If I am to serve as an instrument of deceit, at least let it be with a clear conscience. I do not want to be considered either so affectionate or so loyal a servant as to be found fit to betray anyone.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Deceit, Loyal, Want

  Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.603, Stanford University Press

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• Hath God obliged himself not to exceed the bounds of our knowledge?

  Michel de Montaigne

  Obliged, Exceed, Bounds

  Michel de Montaigne (1964). “Selected essays of Montaigne: in the translation of John Florio”

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• All other knowledge is hurtful to him who has not honesty and good-nature

  Michel de Montaigne

  Honesty, Hurtful, Good Nature

  Michel de Montaigne (1800). “Essays, Selected from Montaigne: With a Sketch of the Life of the Author”, p.124

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• Even opinion is of force enough to make itself to be espoused at the expense of life.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Opinion, Enough, Force

  Michel de Montaigne, Bayle St. John (1866). “Essays [tr. by Cotton”, p.358

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• I don't break the law* made for crooks, when I take away my own property - thus I am not obliged to conform to the law made for murderers when I deprive myself of my own life.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Suicide, Law, Crooks

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• He who remembers the evils he has undergone, and those that have threatened him, and the slight causes that have changed him from one state to another, prepares himself in that way for future changes and for recognizing his condition. The life of Caesar has no more to show us than our own; an emperor's or an ordinary man's, it is still a life subject to all human accidents.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Men, Evil, Ordinary

  Michel de Montaigne (1980). “Essays”

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• Children's games are hardly games. Children are never more serious than when they play.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Inspirational, Children, Kids

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• We owe subjection and obedience to all our kings, whether good or bad, alike, for that has respect unto their office; but as to esteem and affection, these are only due to their virtue.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Kings, Office, Affection

  Michel de Montaigne (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Michel de Montaigne (Illustrated)”, p.220, Delphi Classics

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• The continuous work of our life is to build death.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Life Is, Our Lives

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• Experience stands on its own dunghill in medicine, and reason yields it place. Medicine has always professed experience to be the touchstone of its operations.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Yield, Medicine, Reason

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• No man dies before his hour. The time you leave behind was no more yours, than that which was before your birth, and concerneth you no more.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Death, Men, Birth

  Michel de Montaigne (2014). “Shakespeare's Montaigne: The Florio Translation of the Essays, A Selection”, p.31, New York Review of Books

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• My trade and my art is living. He who forbids me to speak about it according to my sense, experience, and practice, let him orderthe architect to speak of buildings not according to himself but according to his neighbor; according to another man's knowledge, not according to his own.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Life, Art, Knowledge

  Michel de Montaigne (1979). “Essays”

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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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• I am disgusted with innovation, in whatever guise, and with reason, for I have seen very harmful effects of it.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Innovation, Reason, Danger

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

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• The laws of conscience, though we ascribe them to nature, actually come from custom.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Law, Customs, Conscience

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• Those who give the first shock to a state are the first overwhelmed in its ruin; the fruits of public commotion are seldom enjoyed by him who was the first mover; he only beats the water for another's net.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Giving, Water, Ruins

  Michel de Montaigne, Antoine JAY (1842). “The Complete Works of Michael de Montaigne; Comprising; the Essays, Translated by Cotton; the Letters; the Journey Into Germany and Italy, Now First Translated; a Life by the Editor; Notes: ... Critical Opinions; ... the Éloges of MM. Jay and Villemain; a”, p.46

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• Pleasure itself is painful at the bottom.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Painful, Pleasure, Bottom

  Michel de Montaigne (1701). “An Abstract of the most Curious and Excellent Thoughts in Seigneur de Montaigne's Essays ... Done into English from the French original.Jpp. 227”, p.189

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• If not for that of conscience, yet at least for ambition's sake, let us reject ambition, let us disdain that thirst of honor and renown, so low and mendicant; that it makes us beg it of all sorts of people.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Ambition, People, Honor

  Michel de Montaigne (2013). “Michel de Montaigne: Selected Essays”, p.205, Courier Corporation

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• Now, of all the benefits that virtue confers upon us, the contempt of death is one of the greatest.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Life, Death, Benefits

  "Montaigne's Essays: Top Essays".

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• Traveling through the world produces a marvelous clarity in the judgment of men. We are all of us confined and enclosed within ourselves, and see no farther than the end of our nose. This great world is a mirror where we must see ourselves in order to know ourselves. There are so many different tempers, so many different points of view, judgments, opinions, laws and customs to teach us to judge wisely on our own, and to teach our judgment to recognize its imperfection and natural weakness.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Men, Mirrors, Views

  "The Necessity for Ruins, and Other Topics". Book by John Brinckerhoff Jackson, p. 4, 1980.

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• Nor is it enough to toughen up his soul; you must also toughen up his muscles.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Educational, Soul, Enough

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

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• And I loathe people who find it harder to put up with a gown askew than with a soul askew and who judge a man by his bow, his bearing and his boots.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Educational, Men, People

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

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• The easy, gentle, and sloping path . . . is not the path of true virtue. It demands a rough and thorny road.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Demand, Path, Virtue

  Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.308, Stanford University Press

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• The judgment is an utensil proper for all subjects, and will have an oar in everything.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Utensils, Judgment, Oar

  Michel de Montaigne (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Michel de Montaigne (Illustrated)”, p.536, Delphi Classics

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