Quote

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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Health is a precious thing, and the only one, in truth, meriting that a man should lay out not only his time, sweat, labor and goods, but also life itself to obtain it.
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Let us a little permit nature to take her own way she better understands her own affairs than we.
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Every one is well or ill at ease, according as he finds himself! not he whom the world believes, but he who believes himself to be so, is content and in him alone belief gives itself being and reality
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A man has need of tough ears to hear himself fairly judged.
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We are more unhappy to see people ahead of us than happy to see people behind us.
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There were many terrible things in my life and most of them never happened.
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Nor is it enough to toughen up his soul you must also toughen up his muscles.
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Not because Socrates said so, but because it is in truth my own disposition — and perchance to some excess — I look upon all men as my compatriots, and embrace a Pole as a Frenchman, making less account of the national than of the universal and common bond.
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Make use of life while you have it. Whether you have lived enough depends upon yourself, not on the number of your years.
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The same reason that makes us chide and brawl and fall out with any of our neighbors, causeth a war to follow between Princes.
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The share we have in the knowledge of truth, such as it is, has not been acquired by our own powers. God has taught ushis wonderful secrets our faith is not of our acquiring, it is purely the gift of another's bounty.
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Seeing that the Senses cannot decide our dispute, being themselves full of uncertainty, we must have recourse to Reason there is no reason but must be built upon another reason: so here we are retreating backwards to infinity.
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In plain truth, lying is an accursed vice. We are not men, nor have any other tie upon another, but by our word.
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A well-bred man is always sociable and complaisant.
Michel de Montaigne
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What kind of truth is it which has these mountains as its boundary and is a lie beyond them?
Michel de Montaigne
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There is, nevertheless, a certain respect and a general duty of humanity that ties us, not only to beasts that have life and sense, but even to trees and plants.
Michel de Montaigne
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The world is all a carcass and vanity, The shadow of a shadow, a play And in one word, just nothing.
Michel de Montaigne
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Obstinacy and heat in argument are surest proofs of folly. Is there anything so stubborn, obstinate, disdainful, contemplative, grave, or serious, as an ass?
Michel de Montaigne
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There are truths on this side of the Pyrenees which are falsehoods on the other
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We are nearer neighbors to ourselves than the whiteness of snow or the weight of stones are to us: if man does not know himself, how should he know his functions and powers?
Michel de Montaigne