Quote

I am afraid that our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, and that we have more curiosity than understanding. We grasp at everything, but catch nothing except wind.

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
Eye
Catch
Everything
Curiosity
Nothing
Except
Bigger
Afraid
Wind
Eyes
Stomachs
Understanding
Grasp

More quotes by Michel de Montaigne

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Our speech has its weaknesses and its defects, like all the rest. Most of the occasions for the troubles of the world are grammatical.
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I do not portray the thing in itself. I portray the passage not a passing from one age to another, or, as the people put it, from seven years to seven years, but from day to day, from minute to minute.
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He that first likened glory to a shadow did better than he was aware of. They are both of them things excellently vain. Glory also, like a shadow, goes sometimes before the body, and sometimes in length infinitely exceeds it.
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Let us not be ashamed to speak what we shame not to think.
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The pleasure we hold in esteem for the course of our lives ought to have a greater share of our time dedicated to it we should refuse no occasion nor omit any opportunity of drinking, and always have it in our minds.
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Can anything be imagined so ridiculous that this miserable and wretched creature, who is not so much as master of himself, but subject to the injuries of all things, should call himself master and emperor of the world, of which he has not power to know the least part, much less to command the whole?
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It is the rule of rules, and the general law of all laws, that every person should observe those of the place where he is.
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Virtue can have naught to do with ease. . . . It craves a steep and thorny path.
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The strangest, most generous, and proudest of all virtues is true courage.
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Learned we may be with another man's learning: we can only be wise with wisdom of our own.
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Why dost thou complain of this world? It detains thee not thy own cowardice is the cause, if thou livest in pain.
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Great authors, when they write about causes, adduce not only those they think are true but also those they do not believe in, provided they have some originality and beauty. They speak truly and usefully enough if they speak ingeniously.
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We are all patchwork, and so shapeless and diverse in composition that each bit, each moment, plays its own game.
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Everyone calls barbarity what he is not accustomed to.
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The honor we receive from those that fear us, is not honor those respects are paid to royalty and not to me.
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No two men ever judged alike of the same thing, and it is impossible to find two opinions exactly similar, not only in different men but in the same men at different times.
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The world is but a perpetual see-saw.
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To behave rightly, we ourselves should never lay a hand on our servants as long as our anger lasts. Things will seem different to us when we have quieted and cooled down.
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The only good histories are those that have been written by the persons themselves who commanded in the affairs whereof they write.
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The first lessons with which we should irrigate his mind should be those which teach him to know himself, and to know how to die ... and to live.
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