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Michel de Montaigne Quotes - Page 11

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Saying is one thing and doing is another; we are to consider the sermon and the preacher distinctly and apart.

Saying is one thing and doing is another; we are to consider the sermon and the preacher distinctly and apart.

Michel de Montaigne
Hypocrisy, Preacher, Sermons
"The Essays of Michel de Montaigne".

It is an absolute perfection and virtually divine to know how to enjoy our being rightfully.

Michel de Montaigne
Perfection, Divine, Enjoy
"Complete Essays".

It is the rule of rules, and the general law of all laws, that every person should observe those of the place where he is.

Michel de Montaigne
Fashion, Law, Should
Michel de Montaigne (1811). “The Essays of Michael de Montaigne”, p.125

Adrian, the Emperor, exclaimed incessantly, when dying, "That the crowd of physicians had killed him."

Michel de Montaigne
Medicine, Dying, Physicians
"Essays", Book II, Chapter XXXVII, as quoted in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations, p. 502-04, 1922.

After a tongue has once got the knack of lying, it is not to be imagined how impossible almost it is to reclaim it. Whence it comes to pass, that we see some men, who are otherwise very honest, so subject to this vice.

Michel de Montaigne
Lying, Men, Vices

Marriage has, for its share, usefulness, justice, honour, and constancy; a stale but more durable pleasure. Love is grounded on pleasure alone, and it is indeed more gratifying to the senses, keener and more acute; a pleasure stirred and kept alive by difficulties. There must be a sting and a smart in it. It ceases to be love if it has no shafts and no fire.

Michel de Montaigne
Love, Marriage, Smart
Michel de Montaigne (1946). “The essays”

God defend me from myself.

Michel de Montaigne
Self, May
"The Complete Works of Michael de Montaigne".

Memory is a wonderfully useful tool, and without it judgement does its work with difficulty; it is entirely lacking in me.... Now,the more I distrust my memory, the more confused it becomes. It serves me better by chance encounter; I have to solicit it nonchalantly. For if I press it, it is stunned; and once it has begun to totter, the more I probe it, the more it gets mixed up and embarrassed. It serves me at its own time, not at mine.

Michel de Montaigne
Memories, Confused, Self

To speak less of oneself than what one really is, is folly, not modesty; and to take that for current pay which is under a man's value, is pusillanimity and cowardice.

Michel de Montaigne
Men, Speak Less, Pay
Michel de Montaigne (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Michel de Montaigne (Illustrated)”, p.614, Delphi Classics

Fortune, seeing that she could not make fools wise, has made them lucky.

Michel de Montaigne
Funny, Wise, Humor
Attributed to "Essais" by Michel de Montaigne, Book III, Ch. 8, 1595.

I listen with attention to the judgment of all men; but so far as I can remember, I have followed none but my own.

Michel de Montaigne
Men, Attention, Remember
Michel de Montaigne (1956). “Autobiography: Comprising the Life of the Wisest Man of His Times ...”

I love those historians that are either very simple or most excellent. Such as are between both (which is the most common fashion), it is they that spoil all; they will needs chew our meat for us and take upon them a law to judge, and by consequence to square and incline the story according to their fantasy.

Michel de Montaigne
Love, Fashion, Simple
Michel de Montaigne (1893). “The Essayes of Michael Lord of Montaigne”

The plague of man is boasting of his knowledge.

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

As far as fidelity is concerned, there is no animal in the world as treacherous as man.

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

I must use these great men's virtues as a cloak for my weakness.

Michel de Montaigne
Men, Weakness, Use
Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Essays”

Fortune, to show us her power in all things, and to abate our presumption, seeing she could not make fools wise, has made them fortunate.

Michel de Montaigne
Wise, Fool, Made
Michel de Montaigne (1872). “All the Essays of Michael Seigneur de Montaigne”, p.741

All opinions in the world agree in this, that pleasure is our end, although they differ as to the means of attaining it.

Michel de Montaigne
Mean, Differences, World
Michel de Montaigne (1946). “The essays”

What fear has once made me will, I am bound still to will when without fear.

Michel de Montaigne
Fear, Self, Behavior
Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.608, Stanford University Press

Amongst all other vices there is none I hate more than cruelty, both by nature and judgment, as the extremest of all vices.

Michel de Montaigne
Hate, Vices, Judgment

A man should think less of what he eats and more with whom he eats because no food is so satisfying as good company.

Michel de Montaigne
Men, Thinking, Good Company

Friendship is a creature formed for a companionship not for a herd.

Michel de Montaigne
Companionship, Herds, Creatures

He who lives not to others, lives little to himself.

Michel de Montaigne
Littles

Among the liberal arts, let us begin with the art that liberates us.

Michel de Montaigne
Art, Liberal Arts
Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.117, Stanford University Press

A straight oar looks bent in the water. It matters not merely that we see a thing, but how we see it.

Michel de Montaigne
What Matters, Water, Looks
"Selected Essays".

One may be humble out of pride.

Michel de Montaigne
Humble, Humility, Pride
Michel de Montaigne (2015). “Essays of Montaigne”, p.758, Xist Publishing

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