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Michel de Montaigne Quotes - Page 26

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There is nothing in which a horse's power is better revealed than in a neat, clean stop.

There is nothing in which a horse's power is better revealed than in a neat, clean stop.

Michel de Montaigne
Horse, Clean, Neat

The first distinction among men, and the first consideration that gave one precedence over another, was doubtless the advantage of beauty.

Michel de Montaigne
Beauty, Men, Firsts

The memory represents to us not what we choose but what it pleases.

Michel de Montaigne
Memories, Please, Our Memories
Michel de Montaigne, Roger Ariew (1987). “Apology for Raymond Sebond”, p.56, Hackett Publishing

Not because Socrates said so,... I look upon all men as my compatriots.

Michel de Montaigne
Men, Looks, Look Up
Michel de Montaigne (1866). “Works of Michael de Montaigne: Comprising His Essays, Journey Into Italy, and Letters”, p.280

The diversity of physical arguments and opinions embraces all sorts of methods.

Michel de Montaigne
Diversity, Opinion, Argument
Michel de Montaigne (1872). “All the Essays of Michael Seigneur de Montaigne”, p.868

Reason has so many forms that we do not know which to choose-Experiment has no fewer.

Michel de Montaigne
Science, Reason, Form

He was doubtless an understanding Fellow that said, there was no happy Marriage but betwixt a blind Wife and a deaf Husband.

Michel de Montaigne
Husband, Wife, Understanding
Michel de Montaigne, Charles Cotton (1711). “Essays of Michael Seigneur de Montaigne: In Three Books with Marginal Notes and Quotations. And an Account of the Author's Life. With a Short Character of the Author and Translator,”, p.117

Men do not know the natural infirmity of their mind: it does nothing but ferret and quest, and keeps incessantly whirling around, building up and becoming entangled in its own work, like silkworms, and is suffocated in it. A mouse in a pitch barrel...thinks it notices from a distance some sort of glimmer of imaginary light and truth; but while running toward it, it is crossed by so many difficulties and obstacles, and diverted by so many new quests, that it strays from the road, bewildered.

Michel de Montaigne
Running, Distance, Men

We have so much ill fortune as inconstancy, or so much bad purpose as folly, we are not so full of evil as we are of inanity; we are not so wretched as we are base

Michel de Montaigne
Evil, Purpose, Fortune
Michel de Montaigne (1925). “The essays of Montaigne”

Is it reasonable that even the arts should take advantage of and profit by our natural stupidity and feebleness of mind?

Michel de Montaigne
Art, Stupidity, Mind

If to take up books were to take them in, and if to see them were to consider them, and to run through them were to grasp them, I should be wrong to make myself out quite as ignorant as I say I am.

Michel de Montaigne
Running, Book, Ignorant
Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”

God is favorable to those whom he makes to die by degrees; 'tis the only benefit of old age. The last death will be so much the less painful: it will kill but a quarter of a man or but half a one at most.

Michel de Montaigne
Death, Men, Age
Michel de Montaigne (1872). “All the Essays of Michael Seigneur de Montaigne”, p.880

The entire lower world was created in the likeness of the higher world. All that exists in the higher world appears like an image in this lower world; yet all this is but One.

Michel de Montaigne
World, Higher
Attributed to "Essais" by Michel de Montaigne, 1595.

I have often seen people uncivil by too much civility, and tiresome in their courtesy.

Michel de Montaigne
People, Too Much, Civility

The world always looks straights ahead; as for me, I turn my gaze inward, I fix it there and keep it busy. Everyone looks in front of him: as for me, I look inside me: I have no business but with myself; I continually observe myself, I take stock of myself, I taste myself. Others...they always go forward; as for me, I roll about in myself.

Michel de Montaigne
Inward, Looks, World

Few men have been admired of their familiars.

Michel de Montaigne
Men, Has Beens
Michel de Montaigne (1603). “Essayes”, p.48

I would rather produce my passions than brood over them at my expense; they grow languid when they have vent and expression. It is better that their point should operate outwardly than be turned against us.

Michel de Montaigne
Passion, Expression, Should
Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.543, Stanford University Press

We are born to inquire into truth; it belongs to a greater to possess it

Michel de Montaigne
Born, Greater

We must not attach knowledge to the mind, we have to incorporate it there.

Michel de Montaigne
Understanding, Mind
"Essais" by Michel de Montaigne, Book I, Ch. 25, 1595.

We every day and every hour say things of another that we might more properly say of ourselves, could we but apply our observations to our own concerns.

Michel de Montaigne
Criticism, Might, Hours
Michel de Montaigne (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Michel de Montaigne (Illustrated)”, p.630, Delphi Classics

Long life, and short, are by death made all one; for there is no long, nor short, to things that are no more.

Michel de Montaigne
Long, Life And Death, Long Life
Michel de Montaigne (2015). “Montaigne's Essays: Top Essays”, p.109, 谷月社

It is an injustice that an old, broken, half-dead father should enjoy alone, in a corner of his hearth, possessions that would suffice for the advancement and maintenance of many children.

Michel de Montaigne
Children, Father, Broken
Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.280, Stanford University Press

How often, being moved under a false cause, if the person offending makes a good defense and presents us with a just excuse, are we angry against truth and innocence itself?

Michel de Montaigne
Anger, Offending, Defense
Michel de Montaigne (2015). “Essays of Montaigne”, p.849, Xist Publishing

Travelling through the world produces a marvellous 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.

Michel de Montaigne
Men, Noses, World

There is some shadow of delight and delicacy which smiles upon and flatters us even in the very lap of melancholy.

Michel de Montaigne
Happiness, Shadow, Lap
Michel de Montaigne (1872). “All the Essays of Michael Seigneur de Montaigne”, p.567

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