Quotes by Michel de Montaigne

For truly it is to be noted, that childrens plays are not sports, and should be deemed as their most serious actions.

Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself.

Covetousness is both the beginning and the end of the devils alphabet - the first vice in corrupt nature that moves, and the last which dies.

Let us permit nature to have her way. She understands her business better than we do.

It is a sign of contraction of the mind when it is content, or of weariness. A spirited mind never stops within itself; it is always aspiring and going beyond its strength.

Death, they say, acquits us of all obligations.

Age imprints more wrinkles in the mind than it does on the face.

It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others.

Stubborn and ardent clinging to ones opinion is the best proof of stupidity.

Confidence in the goodness of another is good proof of ones own goodness.

Fortune, seeing that she could not make fools wise, has made them lucky.

There is no desire more natural than the desire for knowledge.

We can be knowledgable with other mens knowledge but we cannot be wise with other mens wisdom.

There is no passion so contagious as that of fear.

I speak the truth not so much as I would, but as much as I dare, and I dare a little more as I grow older.

I put forward formless and unresolved notions, as do those who publish doubtful questions to debate in the schools, not to establish the truth but to seek it.

Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul.

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

How many things we held yesterday as articles of faith which today we tell as fables.

Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside equally desperate to get out.