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Wisdom has its excesses, and has no less need of moderation than folly.
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
Happiness
Less
Need
Needs
Excesses
Moderation
Excess
Folly
Wisdom
More quotes by Michel de Montaigne
We do not marry for ourselves, whatever we say we marry just as much or more for our posterity, for our family. The practice and benefit of marriage concerns our race very far beyond us.
Michel de Montaigne
It is a sign of contraction of the mind when it is content, or of weariness.
Michel de Montaigne
Speaking is half his that speaks, and half his that hears.
Michel de Montaigne
A straight oar looks bent in the water. It matters not merely that we see a thing, but how we see it.
Michel de Montaigne
And I loathe people who find it harder to put up with a gown askew than with a soul askew and who judge a man by his bow, his bearing and his boots.
Michel de Montaigne
Men of simple understanding, little inquisitive and little instructed, make good Christians.
Michel de Montaigne
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.
Michel de Montaigne
Once you have decided to keep a certain pile, it is no longer yours for you can't spend it.
Michel de Montaigne
The worst of my actions or conditions seem not so ugly unto me as I find it both ugly and base not to dare to avouch for them.
Michel de Montaigne
A man never speaks of himself without losing something. What he says in his disfavor is always beleived, but when he commends himself, he arouses mistrust.
Michel de Montaigne
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.
Michel de Montaigne
... whoever believes anything esteems that it is a work of charity to persuade another of it.
Michel de Montaigne
The soul that has no established aim loses itself
Michel de Montaigne
There is not much less vexation in the government of a private family than in the managing of an entire state.
Michel de Montaigne
I do not correct my first imaginings by my second--well, yes, perhaps a word or so, but only to vary, not to delete. I want to represent the course of my humors and I want people to see each part at its birth.
Michel de Montaigne
A hair shirt does not always render those chaste who wear it.
Michel de Montaigne
I have here only made a nosegay of culled flowers, and have brought nothing of my own but the thread that tied them together.
Michel de Montaigne
A well-bred man is always sociable and complaisant.
Michel de Montaigne
The beginnings of all things are weak and tender. We must therefore be clear-sighted in the beginnings, for, as in their budding we discern not the danger, so in their full growth we perceive not the remedy.
Michel de Montaigne
For among other things he had been counseled to bring me to love knowledge and duty by my own choice, without forcing my will, and to educate my soul entirely through gentleness and freedom.
Michel de Montaigne
