X

Sort by

Quote length

Sentiment

Change font

Change background

French Moralist Inspirational Quotes (1561)

Page 5 of 66
Filter & Style
Image
At the centre of every human being is a God-shaped vacuum which can only be filled by Jesus Christ.
Blaise Pascal
Image
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
Image
Two similar faces, neither of which alone causes laughter, use laughter when they are together, by their resemblance.
Blaise Pascal
Image
Teach him a certain refinement in sorting out and selecting his arguments, with an affection for relevance and so for brevity. Above all let him be taught to throw down his arms and surrender to truth as soon as he perceives it, whether the truth is born at his rival's doing or within himself from some change in his ideas.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
Making fun of philosophy is really philosophising.
Blaise Pascal
Image
Water, earth, air, fire, and the other parts of this structure of mine are no more instruments of your life than instruments of your death. Why do you fear your last day? It contributes no more to your death than each of the others. The last step does not cause the fatigue, but reveals it. All days travel toward death, the last one reaches it.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
Seneca's virtue shows forth so live and vigorous in his writings, and the defense is so clear there against some of these imputations, as that of his wealth and excessive spending, that I would not believe any testimony to the contrary.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
We are all of us richer than we think we are.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
God is, or He is not. But to which side shall we incline? Reason can decide nothing here. There is an infinite chaos which separated us. A game is being played at the extremity of this infinite distance where heads or tails will turn up. What will you wager?
Blaise Pascal
Image
There was once in man a true happiness of which there now remain to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not obtain in things present.
Blaise Pascal
Image
Le geai pare des plumes du paon. A bluejay in peacock feathers.
Jean de La Fontaine
Image
Favor exalts a man above his equals, but his dismissal from that favor places him below them.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
The great gift of conversation lies less in displaying it ourselves than in drawing it out of others. He who leaves your company pleased with himself and his own cleverness is perfectly well pleased with you.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
If man were happy, he would be the more so, the less he was diverted, like the saints and God.
Blaise Pascal
Image
If your doctor does not think it good for you to sleep, to drink wine, or to eat of a particular dish, do not worry I will find you another who will not agree with him.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
One man may have some special knowledge at first-hand about the character of a river or a spring, who otherwise knows only what everyone else knows. Yet to give currency to this shred of information, he will undertake to write on the whole science of physics. From this fault many great troubles spring.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
To speak less of oneself than what one really is, is folly, not modesty and to take that for current pay which is under a man's value, is pusillanimity and cowardice.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
A man can keep another's secret better than his own. A woman her own better than others.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
This notion [skepticism] is more clearly understood by asking What do I know?
Michel de Montaigne
Image
The methods that help a man acquire a fortune are the very ones that keep him from enjoying it.
Antoine Rivarol
Image
We judge a horse not only by its pace on a racecourse, but also by its walk, nay, when resting in its stable.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
The human face is a weak guarantee yet it deserves some consideration. And if I had to whip the wicked, I would do so more severely to those who belied and betrayed the promises that nature had implanted on their brows I would punish malice more harshly when it was hidden under a kindly appearance.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
The body enjoys a great share in our being, and has an eminent place in it. Its structure and composition, therefore, are worthy of proper consideration.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
To how many girls has a great beauty been of no other use but to make them expect a large fortune!
Jean de la Bruyere
Previous
Next