Quote

The worst of my actions or conditions seem not so ugly unto me as I find it both ugly and base not to dare to avouch for them.

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
Find
Dare
Actions
Ugly
Conditions
Seem
Worst
Confession
Action
Unto
Seems
Base

More quotes by Michel de Montaigne

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Every movement reveals us.
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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.
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Glory consists of two parts: the one in setting too great a value upon ourselves, and the other in setting too little a value upon others.
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I had rather complain of ill-fortune than be ashamed of victory.
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To understand via the heart is not to understand.
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It should be noted that children at play are not playing about their games should be seen as their most serious-minded activity.
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I care not so much what I am to others as what I am to myself. I will be rich by myself, and not by borrowing.
Michel de Montaigne
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The strength of any plan depends on the time. Circumstances and things eternally shift and change.
Michel de Montaigne
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Every day I hear stupid people say things that are not stupid.
Michel de Montaigne
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Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself.
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True freedom is to have power over oneself for everything.
Michel de Montaigne
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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.
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Greatness of soul consists not so much in soaring high and in pressing forward, as in knowing how to adapt and limit oneself.
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Intelligence is required to be able to know that a man knows not.
Michel de Montaigne
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Socrates and then Archesilaus used to make their pupils speak first they spoke afterwards. 'Obest plerumque iss discere volunt authoritas eorum qui docent.' [For those who want to learn, the obstacle can often be the authority of those who teach]
Michel de Montaigne
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Every one's true worship was that which he found in use in the place where he chanced to be.
Michel de Montaigne
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Whoever will imagine a perpetual confession of ignorance, a judgment without leaning or inclination, on any occasion whatever, hasa conception of Pyrrhonism.
Michel de Montaigne
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This notion [skepticism] is more clearly understood by asking What do I know?
Michel de Montaigne
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If health and a fair day smile upon me, I am a very good fellow if a corn trouble my toe, I am sullen, out of humor, and inaccessible.
Michel de Montaigne
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If love and ambition should be in equal balance, and come to jostle with equal force, I make no doubt but that the last would win the prize.
Michel de Montaigne