Share
×
Inspirational Quotes
Authors
Professions
Topics
Tags
Quote
The most fruitful and natural exercise for our minds is, in my opinion, conversation.
Michel de Montaigne
Share
Change background
T
T
T
Change font
Original
TAGS & TOPICS
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
Minds
Conversation
Exercise
Opinion
Natural
Mind
Fruitful
More quotes by Michel de Montaigne
Our own peculiar human condition is that we are as fit to be laughed at as able to laugh.
Michel de Montaigne
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
God defend me from myself.
Michel de Montaigne
The honor we receive from those that fear us, is not honor those respects are paid to royalty and not to me.
Michel de Montaigne
There is nothing which so poisons princes as flattery, nor anything whereby wicked men more easily obtain credit and favor with them.
Michel de Montaigne
To die is not to play a part in society it is the act of a single person. Let us live and laugh among our friends let us die and sulk among strangers.
Michel de Montaigne
The thing in the world I am most afraid of is fear, and with good reason that passion alone, in the trouble of it, exceeding all other accidents
Michel de Montaigne
The wise man should withdraw his soul within, out of the crowd, and keep it in freedom and power to judge things freely but as for externals, he should wholly follow the accepted fashions and forms.
Michel de Montaigne
Tortures are a dangerous invention, and seem to be a test of endurance rather than of truth.
Michel de Montaigne
A good marriage ... is a sweet association in life: full of constancy, trust, and an infinite number of useful and solid services and mutual obligations.
Michel de Montaigne
Ambition sufficiently plagues her proselytes, by keeping themselves always in show, like the statue of a public place.
Michel de Montaigne
Reason has so many forms that we do not know which to choose-Experiment has no fewer.
Michel de Montaigne
We must learn to endure what we cannot avoid. Our life is composed, like the harmony of the world, of contrary things, also of different tones, sweet and harsh, sharp and flat, soft and loud. If a musician liked only one kind, what would he have to say?
Michel de Montaigne
I am much afraid that we shall have very greatly hastened the decline and ruin of the New World by our contagion, and that we willhave sold it our opinions and our arts very dear.
Michel de Montaigne
The most universal quality is diversity.
Michel de Montaigne
A well-bred man is always sociable and complaisant.
Michel de Montaigne
There is indeed a certain sense of gratification when we do a good deed that gives us inward satisfaction, and a generous pride that accompanies a good conscience…These testimonies of a good conscience are pleasant and such a natural pleasure is very beneficial to us it is the only payment that can never fail. “On Repentance
Michel de Montaigne
Meditation is a rich and powerful method of study for anyone who knows how to examine his mind.
Michel de Montaigne
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
There is no so wretched and coarse a soul wherein some particular faculty is not seen to shine.
Michel de Montaigne
