Michel Eyquem De Montaigne
94 quotations
Nature should have been pleased to have made this age miserable, without making it also ridiculous.
Age imprints more wrinkles in the mind than it does on the face.
There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.
But sure there is need of other remedies than dreaming, a weak contention of art against nature.
Example is a bright looking-glass, universal and for all shapes to look into.
All the fame you should look for in life is to have lived it quietly.
There is little less trouble in governing a private family than a whole kingdom.
The thing I fear most is fear.
I know what I am fleeing from, but not what I am in search of.
There is no passion so contagious as that of fear.
Fortune, seeing that she could not make fools wise, has made them lucky.
Ambition is not a vice of little people.
When I play with my cat, who knows whether she is not amusing herself with me more than I with her.
No wind favors him who has no destined port.
No wind serves him who addresses his voyage to no certain port.
To honor him whom we have made is far from honoring him that hath made us..
It is very easy to accuse a government of imperfection, for all mortal things are full of it.
It is not the want, but rather abundance that creates avarice.
Habit is second nature.
The smallest annoyances, disturb us the most.
Man is stark mad; he cannot make a flea, and yet he will be making gods by the dozens.
The weeping of an heir is laughter in disguise.
The most profound joy has more of gravity than of gaiety in it.
It is a common seen by experience that excellent memories do often accompany weak judgments.
It would be better to have no laws at all, than to have too many.