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A straight oar looks bent in the water. It matters not merely that we see a thing, but how we see it.
Michel de Montaigne
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Michel de Montaigne
Age: 59 †
Born: 1533
Born: February 28
Died: 1592
Died: September 13
Autobiographer
Essayist
French Moralist
Jurist
Philosopher
Poet Lawyer
Politician
Translator
Writer
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
Miquèu Eiquèm de Montanha
Miqueu Eiquem de Montanha
Bent
Straight
Matters
Merely
Water
Matter
Looks
Thing
Oar
More quotes by Michel de Montaigne
I consider myself an average man, except in the fact that I consider myself an average man.
Michel de Montaigne
A little of everything and nothing thoroughly, after the French fashion.
Michel de Montaigne
Words repeated again have as another sound, so another sense.
Michel de Montaigne
The oldest and best known evil was ever more supportable than one that was new and untried.
Michel de Montaigne
The truth of these days is not that which really is, but what every man persuades another man to believe.
Michel de Montaigne
For table-talk, I prefer the pleasant and witty before the learned and the grave in bed, beauty before goodness.
Michel de Montaigne
If my intentions were not to be read in my eyes and voice, I should not have survived so long without quarrels and without harm, seeing the indiscreet freedom with which I say, right or wrong, whatever comes into my head.
Michel de Montaigne
The most fruitful and natural exercise for our minds is, in my opinion, conversation.
Michel de Montaigne
Who is it that does not voluntarily exchange his health, his repose, and his very life for reputation and glory? The most useless, frivolous, and false coin that passes current among us.
Michel de Montaigne
There are truths on this side of the Pyrenees which are falsehoods on the other
Michel de Montaigne
I have never seen a greater monster or miracle in the world than myself.
Michel de Montaigne
Who does not in some sort live to others, does not live much to himself.
Michel de Montaigne
Human understanding is marvellously enlightened by daily conversation with men, for we are, otherwise, compressed and heaped up in ourselves, and have our sight limited to the length of our own noses.
Michel de Montaigne
I consider it equal injustice to set our heart against natural pleasures and to set our heart too much on them. We should neither pursue them, nor flee them we should accept them.
Michel de Montaigne
A man never speaks of himself without losing something. What he says in his disfavor is always beleived, but when he commends himself, he arouses mistrust.
Michel de Montaigne
We have no participation in Being, because all human nature is ever midway between being born and dying, giving off only a vague image and shadow of itself, and a weak and uncertain opinion. And if you chance to fix your thoughts on trying to grasp its essence, it would be neither more nor less than if your tried to clutch water.
Michel de Montaigne
[Marriage] happens as with cages: the birds without despair to get in, and those within despair of getting out.
Michel de Montaigne
Oh, what a valiant faculty is hope, that in a mortal subject, and in a moment, makes nothing of usurping infinity, immensity, eternity, and of supplying its masters indigence, at its pleasure, with all things he can imagine or desire!
Michel de Montaigne
Men are nothing until they are excited.
Michel de Montaigne
Intoxication is calculated to put heart into the elderly and give them delight in dancing.
Michel de Montaigne