“The most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness. ”
― Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
“On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.”
― Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
“I quote others only in order the better to express myself.”
― Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
“Learned we may be with another man's learning: we can only be wise with wisdom of our own.”
― Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
“I am afraid that our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, and that we have more curiosity than understanding. We grasp at everything, but catch nothing except wind.”
― Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
“Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens.”
― Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
“Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.”
― Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
“I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.”
― Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
“Obsession is the wellspring of genius and madness.”
― Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
“Let us give Nature a chance; she knows her business better than we do.”
― Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
“I speak the truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare; and I dare a little more as I grow older.”
― Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
“I do not believe, from what I have been told about this people, that there is anything barbarous or savage about them, except that we all call barbarous anything that is contrary to our own habits.”
― Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
“The most fruitful and natural exercise for our minds is, in my opinion, conversation.”
― Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
“No-one is exempt from speaking nonsense – the only misfortune is to do it solemnly.”
― Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
“There is as much difference between us and ourselves as there is between us and others.”
― Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
“Judgement can do without knowledge: but not knowledge without judgement.”
― Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
“Kings and philosophers shit—and so do ladies.”
― Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
“a good marriage would be between a blind wife and a deaf husband.”
― Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
“There is no more expensive thing than a free gift.”
― Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
“The great and glorious masterpiece of man is to live with purpose.”
― Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
“My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened.”
― Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
“Women are not entirely wrong when they reject the moral rules proclaimed in society, since it is we men alone who have made them.”
― Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
“In our time the most warlike nations are the most rude and ignorant.”
― Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
“Better to be tentative than to be recklessly sure- to be an apprentice at sixty, than to present oneself as a doctor at ten.”
― Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
“Each man calls barbarism whatever is not his own practice.”
― Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
“I consider myself an average man, except for the fact that I consider myself an average man.”
― Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)