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It is a disaster that wisdom forbids you to be satisfied with yourself and always sends you away dissatisfied and fearful, whereas stubbornness and foolhardiness fill their hosts with joy and assurance.

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
Away
Fearful
Always
Host
Whereas
Forbids
Fill
Hosts
Disaster
Stubbornness
Satisfied
Dissatisfied
Joy
Sends
Wisdom
Assurance

More quotes by Michel de Montaigne

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To say less of yourself than is true is stupidity, not modesty. To pay yourself less than you are worth is cowardice and pusillanimity.
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In my opinion, every rich man is a miser.
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Judgement can do without knowledge: but not knowledge without judgement.
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As far as I am concerned, no road that would lead us to health is either arduous or expensive.
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The world is but a perennial movement. All things in it are in constant motion-the earth, the rocks of the Caucasus, the pyramids of Egypt-both with the common motion and with their own.
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The public weal requires that men should betray, and lie, and massacre.
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The middle sort of historians (of which the most part are) spoil all they will chew our meat for us.
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We cannot fail in following nature.
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I am one of those who hold that poetry is never so blithe as in a wanton and irregular subject.
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The height and value of true virtue consists in the facility, utility, and pleasure of its exercise so far from difficulty, that boys, as well as men, and the innocent as well as the subtle, may make it their own and it is by order and good conduct, and not by force, that it is to be acquired.
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The worth of the mind consisteth not in going high, but in marching orderly.
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I study myself more than any other subject. That is my metaphysics, that is my physics.
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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?
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Examples teach us that in military affairs, and all others of a like nature, study is apt to enervate and relax the courage of man, rather than to give strength and energy to the mind.
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The oldest and best known evil was ever more supportable than one that was new and untried.
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There never were, in the world, two opinions alike, no more than two hairs, or two grains the most universal quality is diversity.
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Tortures are a dangerous invention, and seem to be a test of endurance rather than of truth.
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Friendship that possesses the whole soul, and there rules and sways with an absolute sovereignty, can admit of no rival.
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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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No man dies before his hour. The time you leave behind was no more yours, than that which was before your birth, and concerneth you no more.
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