Quote

The advantage of living is not measured by length, but by use some men have lived long, and lived little attend to it while you are in it. It lies in your will, not in the number of years, for you to have lived enough.

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
Life
Living
Measured
Use
Length
Littles
Advantage
Little
Lived
Enough
Lies
Long
Number
Years
Numbers
Men
Lying
Attend

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In my youth I studied for ostentation later, a little to gain wisdom now, for recreation never for gain.
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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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All of the days go toward death and the last one arrives there.
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The clatter of arms drowns out the voice of law.
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Saying is one thing and doing is another
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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.
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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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I have seen people rude by being over-polite.
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We cannot fail in following nature.
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It is an injustice that an old, broken, half-dead father should enjoy alone, in a corner of his hearth, possessions that would suffice for the advancement and maintenance of many children.
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Diogenes was asked what wine he liked best and he answered as I would have done when he said, Somebody else's.
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If I am to serve as an instrument of deceit, at least let it be with a clear conscience. I do not want to be considered either so affectionate or so loyal a servant as to be found fit to betray anyone.
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A young man ought to cross his own rules, to awake his vigor, and to keep it from growing faint and rusty. And there is no course of life so weak and sottish as that which is carried on by rule and discipline.
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In the examples that I here bring in of what I have [read], heard, done or said, I have refrained from daring to alter even the smallest and most indifferent circumstances. My conscience falsifies not an iota for my knowledge I cannot answer.
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What fear has once made me will, I am bound still to will when without fear.
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The virtue of the soul does not consist in flying high, but in walking orderly.
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All we do is to look after the opinions and learning of others: we ought to make them our own.
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Writing does not cause misery. It is born of misery.
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We trouble our life by thoughts about death, and our death by thoughts about life.
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... whoever believes anything esteems that it is a work of charity to persuade another of it.
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