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Michel de Montaigne Quotes - Page 24

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A lady could not boast of her chastity who was never tempted.

A lady could not boast of her chastity who was never tempted.

Michel de Montaigne
Chastity, Tempted, Boast
Michel de Montaigne (2015). “Montaigne's Essays: Top Essays”, p.884, 谷月社

It is a thorny undertaking, and more so than it seems, to follow a movement so wandering as that of our mind, to penetrate the opaque depths of its innermost folds, to pick out and immobilize the innumerable flutterings that agitate it.

Michel de Montaigne
Mind, Depth, Movement
Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.273, Stanford University Press

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

Who is only good that others may know it, and that he may be the better esteemed when 'tis known, who will do well but upon condition that his virtue may be known to men, is one from whom much service is not to be expected.

Michel de Montaigne
Men, May, Virtue
Michel de Montaigne (1849). “Works: Comprising His Essays, Letters, and Journey Through Germany and Italy; with Notes, Notices, Etc”, p.317

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

Nature clasps all her creatures in a universal embrace; there is not one of them which she has not plainly furnished with all means necessary to the conservation of its being.

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

The strength of any plan depends on the time. Circumstances and things eternally shift and change.

Michel de Montaigne
Circumstances, Plans, Depends
Michel de Montaigne (1949). “Selected Essays: The Charles Cotton - W.C. Hazlitt Translation, Rev. and Edited, with an Introd”

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

The utility of living consists not in the length of days, but in the use of time; a man may have lived long, and yet lived but a little.

Michel de Montaigne
Men, Long, Use
Michel de Montaigne “Annotated Essays of Michel de Montaigne with English Grammar Exercises: by Michel de Montaigne (Author), Robert Powell (Editor)”, Powell Publications, LLC

We wake sleeping, and sleep waking. I do not see so clearly in my sleep; but as to my being awake, I never found it clear enough and free from clouds.

Michel de Montaigne
Sleep, Clouds, Waking
Michel de Montaigne “Annotated Essays of Michel de Montaigne with English Grammar Exercises: by Michel de Montaigne (Author), Robert Powell (Editor)”, Powell Publications, LLC

I love a friendship that flatters itself in the sharpness and vigor of its communications.

Michel de Montaigne
Friendship, Communication, Vigor

Friendship that possesses the whole soul, and there rules and sways with an absolute sovereignty, can admit of no rival.

Michel de Montaigne
Friendship, Soul, Rivals
Michel de Montaigne (1853). “The Works of Michael de Montaigne: Comprising His Essays, Letters, and Journey Through Germany and Italy. With Notes from All the Commentators, Biographical and Bibliographical Notices &c., &c”, p.82

Vexations may be petty, but they are vexations still.

Michel de Montaigne
May, Vexation, Stills

I honor most those to whom I show least honor; and where my soul moves with great alacrity, I forget the proper steps of ceremony.

Michel de Montaigne
Moving, Self, Soul
Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.186, Stanford University Press

All the fame you should look for in life is to have lived it quietly.

Michel de Montaigne
Looks, Quiet, Life Is

One may disavow and disclaim vices that surprise us and whereto our passions transport us. But those which by long habit are rooted in a strong and anchored in a powerful will are not subject to contradiction. Repentance is but a denying of our will, and an opposition of our fantasies, which diverts us here and there.

Michel de Montaigne
Forgiveness, Strong, Powerful
"Shakespeare's Montaigne: The Florio Translation of the Essays, A Selection".

There is no passion that so much transports men from their right judgments as anger. No one would demur upon punishing a judge with death who should condemn a criminal upon the account of his own choler; why then should fathers and pedants be any more allowed to whip and chastise children in their anger? It is then no longer correction bat revenge. Chastisement is instead of physic to children; and should we suffer a physician who should be animated against and enraged at his patient?

Michel de Montaigne
Children, Revenge, Father

Live as long as you please, you will strike nothing off the time you will have to spend dead.

Michel de Montaigne
Time, Long, Existentialism
Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.66, Stanford University Press

If I were of the trade, I should naturalize art as much as they "artialize" nature.

Michel de Montaigne
Art, Nature, Should
Michel de Montaigne (1946). “The essays”

Might I have had my own will, I would not have married Wisdom herself, if she would have had me.

Michel de Montaigne
Might, Married, Celibacy
Michel de Montaigne “Annotated Essays of Michel de Montaigne with English Grammar Exercises: by Michel de Montaigne (Author), Robert Powell (Editor)”, Powell Publications, LLC

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.

To how many blockheads of my time has a cold and taciturn demeanor procured the credit of prudence and capacity!

Michel de Montaigne
Credit, Cold, Gravity

"Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation." -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, Companionship, Conversation

Learning is not to be tacked to the mind, but we must fuse and blend them together, not merely giving the mind a slight tincture, but a thorough and perfect dye. And if we perceive no evident change and improvement, it would be better to leave it alone; learning is a dangerous weapon, and apt to wound its master if it be wielded by a feeble hand, and by one not well acquainted with its use.

Michel de Montaigne
Learning, Hands, Giving

Saying is one thing and doing is another

Michel de Montaigne
Action, One Thing
Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.541, Stanford University Press

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