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Not being able to govern events, I govern myself, and apply myself to them if they will not apply themselves to me.

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
Events
Able
Govern
Apply
Temptation
Expectations

More quotes by Michel de Montaigne

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~The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them ~
Michel de Montaigne
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It is not necessity but abundance which produces greed.
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The only good histories are those that have been written by the persons themselves who commanded in the affairs whereof they write.
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Love to his soul gave eyes he knew things are not as they seem. The dream is his real life the world around him is the dream.
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There is a certain amount of purpose, acquiescence, and satisfaction in nursing one's melancholy.
Michel de Montaigne
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My library is my kingdom, and here I try to make my rule absolute-shutting off this single nook from wife, daughter and society. Elsewhere I have only a verbal authority, and vague. Unhappy is the man, in my opinion, who has no spot at home where he can be at home to himself-to court himself and hide away.
Michel de Montaigne
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Laws are often made by fools, and even more often by men who fail in equity because they hate equality: but always by men, vain authorities who can resolve nothing.
Michel de Montaigne
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I love those historians that are either very simple or most excellent. Such as are between both (which is the most common fashion), it is they that spoil all they will needs chew our meat for us and take upon them a law to judge, and by consequence to square and incline the story according to their fantasy.
Michel de Montaigne
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Princes give mee sufficiently, if they take nothing from me, and doe me much good, if they doe me no hurt: it is all I require of them.
Michel de Montaigne
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He that had never seen a river, imagined the first he met with to be the sea.
Michel de Montaigne
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Amongst so many borrowed things, am glad if I can steal one, disguising and altering it for some new service.
Michel de Montaigne
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To die is not to play a part in society it is the act of a single person. Let us live and laugh among our friends let us die and sulk among strangers.
Michel de Montaigne
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It would be better to have no laws at all, than to have too many.
Michel de Montaigne
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The only good histories are those written by those who had command in the events they describe.
Michel de Montaigne
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Physicians have this advantage: the sun lights their success and the earth covers their failures.
Michel de Montaigne
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Now, of all the benefits that virtue confers upon us, the contempt of death is one of the greatest.
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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He who falls obstinate in his courage, if he falls he fights from his knees.
Michel de Montaigne
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Judgement can do without knowledge: but not knowledge without judgement.
Michel de Montaigne
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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
Michel de Montaigne