Quote

I conceive that pleasures are to be avoided if greater pains be the consequence, and pains to be coveted that will terminate in greater pleasures.

Michel de Montaigne

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Pains
Avoided
Pleasures
Consequence
Pleasure
Greater
Coveted
Pain
Terminate
Conceive

More quotes by Michel de Montaigne

Image
The soul which has no fixed purpose in life is lost to be everywhere, is to be nowhere.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
Meditation is a powerful and full study as can effectually taste and employ themselves.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
It is easier to write an indifferent poem than to understand a good one.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
[Marriage] happens as with cages: the birds without despair to get in, and those within despair of getting out.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
A learned man is not learned in all things but a sufficient man is sufficient throughout, even to ignorance itself.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
The finest lives in my opinion are the common model, without miracle and without extravagance.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
Necessity is a violent school-mistress.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
If a man should importune me to give a reason why I loved him, I find it could no otherwise be expressed, than by making answer: because it was he, because it was I.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
Tis faith alone that vividly and certainly comprehends the deep mysteries of our religion.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
Cowardice is the mother of cruelty.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
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
Image
And if nobody reads me, shall I have wasted my time, when I have beguiled so many idle hours with such pleasant and profitable reflections?
Michel de Montaigne
Image
I find no quality so easy for a man to counterfeit as devotion, though his life and manner are not conformable to it the essence of it is abstruse and occult, but the appearances easy and showy.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
Intoxication is calculated to put heart into the elderly and give them delight in dancing.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
Wise people are foolish if they cannot adapt to foolish people.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
Any time and any place can be used to study: his room, a garden, is table, his bed when alone or in company morning and evening. His chief study will be Philosophy, that Former of good judgement and character who is privileged to be concerned with everything.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
Painting myself for others, I have painted my inward self with colors clearer than my original ones. I have no more made my book than my book has made me--a book consubstantial with its author, concerned with my own self, an integral part of my life not concerned with some third-hand, extraneous purpose, like all other books.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
We trouble our life by thoughts about death, and our death by thoughts about life.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
To honor him whom we have made is far from honoring him that hath made us.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
Socrates, who was a perfect model in all great qualities, ... hit on a body and face so ugly and so incongruous with the beauty of his soul, he who was so madly in love with beauty.
Michel de Montaigne