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I see men ordinarily more eager to discover a reason for things than to find out whether the things are so.

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
Libertarian
Discover
Knowledge
Whether
Reason
Find
Things
Ordinarily
Men
Eager

More quotes by Michel de Montaigne

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It is only reasonable to allow the administration of affairs to mothers before their children reach the age prescribed by law at which they themselves can be responsible. But that father would have reared them ill who could not hope that in their maturity they would have more wisdom and competence than his wife.
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Habit is a second nature.
Michel de Montaigne
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Others form man I tell of him, and portray a particular one, very ill-formed, whom I should really make very different from whathe is if I had to fashion him over again. But now it is done.
Michel de Montaigne
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I am myself the matter of my book.
Michel de Montaigne
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The memory represents to us not what we choose but what it pleases.
Michel de Montaigne
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Is there anything so grave and serious as an ass?
Michel de Montaigne
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Off I go, rummaging about in books for sayings which please me.
Michel de Montaigne
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The most universal quality is diversity.
Michel de Montaigne
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Virtue can have naught to do with ease. . . . It craves a steep and thorny path.
Michel de Montaigne
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One man may have some special knowledge at first-hand about the character of a river or a spring, who otherwise knows only what everyone else knows. Yet to give currency to this shred of information, he will undertake to write on the whole science of physics. From this fault many great troubles spring.
Michel de Montaigne
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The day of your birth leads you to death as well as to life.
Michel de Montaigne
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Children's plays are not sports, and should be deemed as their most serious actions.
Michel de Montaigne
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All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.
Michel de Montaigne
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There is perhaps no more obvious vanity than to write of it so vainly.
Michel de Montaigne
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Some impose upon the world that they believe that which they do not others, more in number, make themselves believe that they believe, not being able to penetrate into what it is to believe.
Michel de Montaigne
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Great authors, when they write about causes, adduce not only those they think are true but also those they do not believe in, provided they have some originality and beauty. They speak truly and usefully enough if they speak ingeniously.
Michel de Montaigne
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Reason has so many forms that we do not know which to choose-Experiment has no fewer.
Michel de Montaigne
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How often our involuntary facial motions testify to the thoughts we were keeping secret, and betray us to those around!
Michel de Montaigne
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There is a plague on Man, the opinion that he knows something.
Michel de Montaigne
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A man should think less of what he eats and more with whom he eats because no food is so satisfying as good company.
Michel de Montaigne