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Michel de Montaigne Quotes - Page 18

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Behold the hands, how they promise, conjure, appeal, menace, pray, supplicate, refuse, beckon, interrogate, admire, confess, cringe, instruct, command, mock and what not besides, with a variation and multiplication of

Behold the hands, how they promise, conjure, appeal, menace, pray, supplicate, refuse, beckon, interrogate, admire, confess, cringe, instruct, command, mock and what not besides, with a variation and multiplication of variation which makes the tongue envious.

Michel de Montaigne
Hands, Promise, Variation

What a wonderful thing it is that drop of seed, from which we are produced, bears in itself the impressions, not only of the bodily shape, but of the thoughts and inclinations of our fathers!

Michel de Montaigne
Children, Father, Inheritance
Michel de Montaigne (1946). “The essays”

To call out for the hand of the enemy is a rather extreme measure, yet a better one, I think, than to remain in continual fever over an accident that has no remedy. But since all the precautions that a man can take are full of uneasiness and uncertainty, it is better to prepare with fine assurance for the worst that can happen, and derive some consolation from the fact that we are not sure that it will happen.

Michel de Montaigne
Men, Thinking, Hands
Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.97, Stanford University Press

Our thoughts are always elsewhere; we are stayed and supported by the hope for a better life, or by the hope that our children will turn out well, or that our name will be famous in the future, or that we shall escape the evils of this life, or that vengeance threatens those who are the cause of our death.

Michel de Montaigne
Hope, Children, Thinking

A man must either imitate the vicious or hate them.

Michel de Montaigne
Hate, Men, Vicious
Michel de Montaigne (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Michel de Montaigne (Illustrated)”, p.447, Delphi Classics

Pythagoras used to say that life resembles the Olympic Games: a few people strain their muscles to carry off a prize; others bring trinkets to sell to the crowd for gain; and some there are, and not the worst, who seek no other profit than to look at the show and see how and why everything is done; spectators of the life of other people in order to judge and regulate their own.

Michel de Montaigne
Life, Order, Games

The thing in the world I am most afraid of is fear.

Michel de Montaigne
Fear, World
Michel de Montaigne (2013). “Michel de Montaigne: Selected Essays”, p.20, Courier Corporation

To die is not to play a part in society; it is the act of a single person. Let us live and laugh among our friends; let us die and sulk among strangers.

Michel de Montaigne
Play, Laughing, Stranger

Everyone gives the title of barbarism to everything that is not in use in his own country.

Michel de Montaigne
Country, Giving, Titles
Michel de Montaigne (2015). “Montaigne's Essays: Top Essays”, p.228, 谷月社

Certainly, if he still has himself, a man of understanding has lost nothing.

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

Tis the taste of effeminacy that disrelishes ordinary and accustomed things.

Michel de Montaigne
Ordinary, Taste, Mundane
Michel de Montaigne (1877). “The Essays of Montaigne”, p.425

Shame on all eloquence which leaves us with a taste for itself and not for its substance.

Michel de Montaigne
Substance, Taste, Shame

Glory and repose are things that cannot possibly inhabit in one and the same place.

Michel de Montaigne
Glory, Repose
Michel de Montaigne (2013). “Michel de Montaigne: Selected Essays”, p.49, Courier Corporation

How often our involuntary facial motions testify to the thoughts we were keeping secret, and betray us to those around!

Michel de Montaigne
Thoughtful, Thinking, Keeping Secrets
Michel de Montaigne (1946). “The essays”

The corruption of the age is made up by the particular contribution of every individual man; some contribute treachery, others injustice, atheism, tyranny, avarice, cruelty, according to their power.

Michel de Montaigne
Power, Men, Atheism

I turn my gaze inward. I fix it there and keep it busy. I look inside myself. I continually observe myself.

Michel de Montaigne
Inward, Looks, Busy

We have the pleasures suitable to our lot; let us not usurp those of greatness. Ours are more natural and all the more solid and sure for being humbler. Since we will not do so out of conscience, at least out of ambition let us reject ambition.

Michel de Montaigne
Ambition, Greatness, Willpower
Michel de Montaigne (1976). “The Complete Essays of Montaigne”

Not because Socrates said so, but because it is in truth my own disposition — and perchance to some excess — I look upon all men as my compatriots, and embrace a Pole as a Frenchman, making less account of the national than of the universal and common bond.

Michel de Montaigne
Men, Looks, Excess
"Essais" by Michel de Montaigne, Book III, Ch. 9, 1595.

An able reader often discovers in other people's writings perfections beyond those that the author put in or perceived, and lends them richer meanings and aspects.

Michel de Montaigne
Writing, People, Perfection

I find that the best virtue I have has in it some tincture of vice.

Michel de Montaigne
Vices, Virtue
Michel de Montaigne (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Michel de Montaigne (Illustrated)”, p.1414, Delphi Classics

When I was young, beautiful ancient statues were castrated, so that the eye might not be corrupted.... Nothing was gained, unless horses and asses had also been castrated.

Michel de Montaigne
Beautiful, Horse, Eye

Fie on the eloquence that leaves us craving itself, not things!

Michel de Montaigne
Wisdom, Asceticism, Craving
Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.185, Stanford University Press

Nature should have been pleased to have made this age miserable, without making it also ridiculous.

Michel de Montaigne
Time, Should Have, Age
Michel de Montaigne (1603). “Essayes”, p.246

There is nothing useless in nature; not even uselessness itself

Michel de Montaigne
Useless, Uselessness
Michel de Montaigne (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Michel de Montaigne (Illustrated)”, p.1542, Delphi Classics

I have ever loved to repose myself, whether sitting or lying, with my heels as high or higher than my head.

Michel de Montaigne
Lying, Sitting, Higher
Michel de Montaigne (1849). “Works: Comprising His Essays, Letters, and Journey Through Germany and Italy; with Notes, Notices, Etc”, p.535

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