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Michel de Montaigne Quotes - Page 12

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Those who have compared our life to a dream were right... we were sleeping wake, and waking sleep.

Those who have compared our life to a dream were right... we were sleeping wake, and waking sleep.

Michel de Montaigne
Life, Dream, Sleep

Water, earth, air, fire, and the other parts of this structure of mine are no more instruments of your life than instruments of your death. Why do you fear your last day? It contributes no more to your death than each of the others. The last step does not cause the fatigue, but reveals it. All days travel toward death, the last one reaches it.

Michel de Montaigne
Death, Fear, Fire

Malice sucks up the greatest part of its own venom, and poisons itself.

Michel de Montaigne
Poison, Venom, Malice
Michel de Montaigne (2015). “Montaigne's Essays: Top Essays”, p.827, 谷月社

An honest man is not accountable for the vice and folly of his trade, and therefore ought not to refuse the exercise of it. It is the custom of his country, and there is profit in it. We must live by the world, and such as we find it, so make use of it.

Michel de Montaigne
Country, Honesty, Exercise

We are all patchwork, and so shapeless and diverse in composition that each bit, each moment, plays its own game.

Michel de Montaigne
Games, Play, Moments
Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.244, Stanford University Press

Getting married is very much like going to a restaurant with friends. You order what you want then when you see what the other person has, you wish you had ordered that.

Michel de Montaigne
Marriage, Wedding, Order

O human creature,you are the investigator without knowledge, the magistrate without jurisdiction, and all in all, the fool of the farce.

Michel de Montaigne
Arrogance, Farce, Fool

All the opinions in the world point out that pleasure is our aim.

Michel de Montaigne
World, Opinion, Pleasure
"Essais" by Michel de Montaigne, Book I, Ch. 20, 1595.

To philosophize is to learn to die.

Michel de Montaigne
Death, Philosophical, Dies
Michel de Montaigne (1946). “The essays”

If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than it was because he was he, and I was I.

Michel de Montaigne
Love, Life, Friendship
"Essais" by Michel de Montaigne, Book I, Ch. 28, 1595.

What kind of truth is this which is true on one side of a mountain and false on the other?

Michel de Montaigne
Mountain, Sides, Kind
Michel de Montaigne, Marvin Lowenthal (1999). “The Autobiography of Michel de Montaigne: Comprising the Life of the Wisest Man of His Times : His Childhood, Youth, and Prime : His Adventures in Love and Marriage, at Court, and in Office, War, Revolution, and Plague : His Travels at Home and Abroad : His Habits, Tastes, Whims, and Opinions”, p.224, David R. Godine Publisher

The curiosity of knowing things has been given to man for a scourge.

Michel de Montaigne
Men, Knowing, Curiosity
Michel de Montaigne (1872). “All the Essays of Michael Seigneur de Montaigne”, p.535

The strangest, most generous, and proudest of all virtues is true courage.

Michel de Montaigne
Courage, Navy, Virtue
Attributed to "Essais" by Michel de Montaigne, 1595.

Just as in habiliments it is a sign of weakness to wish to make oneself noticeable by some peculiar and unaccustomed fashion, so, in language, the quest for new-fangled phrases and little-known words comes from a puerile and pedantic ambition.

Michel de Montaigne
Fashion, Ambition, Wish
Michel de Montaigne (1925). “The essays of Montaigne”

Human understanding is marvellously enlightened by daily conversation with men, for we are, otherwise, compressed and heaped up in ourselves, and have our sight limited to the length of our own noses.

Michel de Montaigne
Men, Sight, Understanding
Michel de Montaigne (2015). “Montaigne's Essays: Top Essays”, p.176, 谷月社

All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed.

Michel de Montaigne
Humility, Advice, Way
Michel de Montaigne (2009). “Essays”, p.1603, The Floating Press

Most of our occupations are low comedy.... We must play our part duly, but as the part of a borrowed character. Of the mask and appearance we must not make a real essence, nor of what is foreign what is our very own.

Michel de Montaigne
Real, Character, Essence
Michel de Montaigne (2003). “The Complete Works: Essays, Travel Journal, Letters”, Everyman's Library

We judge a horse not only by its pace on a racecourse, but also by its walk, nay, when resting in its stable.

Michel de Montaigne
Horse, Judging, Pace
Michel de Montaigne (1946). “The essays”

The soul that has no established aim loses itself

Michel de Montaigne
Soul, Aim, Loses
Michel de Montaigne “Annotated Essays of Michel de Montaigne with English Grammar Exercises: by Michel de Montaigne (Author), Robert Powell (Editor)”, Powell Publications, LLC

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

Michel de Montaigne
Disappointment, Virtue, Cowardly

A strong memory is commonly coupled with infirm judgment.

Michel de Montaigne
Strong, Memories, Judgment
Michel de Montaigne (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Michel de Montaigne (Illustrated)”, p.239, Delphi Classics

Order a purge for your brain, it will there be much better employed than upon your stomach.

Michel de Montaigne
Order, Brain, Stomach
Michel de Montaigne “Annotated Essays of Michel de Montaigne with English Grammar Exercises: by Michel de Montaigne (Author), Robert Powell (Editor)”, Powell Publications, LLC

To smell, though well, is to stink.

Michel de Montaigne
Smell, Stink, Perfume
Michel de Montaigne (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Michel de Montaigne (Illustrated)”, p.550, Delphi Classics

I speak to the paper, as I speak to the first person I meet.

Michel de Montaigne
Paper, Firsts, Speak

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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