Quote

Those who give the first shock to a state are the first overwhelmed in its ruin the fruits of public commotion are seldom enjoyed by him who was the first mover he only beats the water for another's net.

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
Give
Enjoyed
Mover
States
Beats
Fruits
Firsts
Fruit
Overwhelmed
First
Revolution
Ruin
Giving
Public
Rebellion
State
Seldom
Water
Ruins
Another
Shock
Commotion

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Every movement reveals us.
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Scratching is one of nature's sweetest gratifications, and nearest at hand.
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A good marriage ... is a sweet association in life: full of constancy, trust, and an infinite number of useful and solid services and mutual obligations.
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Silence and modesty are very valuable qualities in conversation.
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It is the part of cowardice, not of courage, to go and crouch in a hole under a massive tomb, to avoid the blows of fortune.
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I seek in the reading of books, only to please myself, by an honest diversion.
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A man must keep a little back shop where he can be himself without reserve. In solitude alone can he know true freedom.
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And truly Philosophy is but sophisticated poetry. Whence do those ancient writers derive all their authority but from the poets?
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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.
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Wise people are foolish if they cannot adapt to foolish people.
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There is perhaps no more obvious vanity than to write of it so vainly.
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Some, either from being glued to vice by a natural attachment, or from long habit, no longer recognize its ugliness.
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The only thing certain is nothing is certain.
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My home...It is my retreat and resting place from wars, I try to keep this corner as a haven against the tempest outside, as I do another corner in my soul.
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I do not teach. I relate.
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Shame on all eloquence which leaves us with a taste for itself and not for its substance.
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A hair shirt does not always render those chaste who wear it.
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There is a plague on Man, the opinion that he knows something.
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Disappointment and feebleness imprint upon us a cowardly and valetudinarian virtue.
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It is the rule of rules, and the general law of all laws, that every person should observe those of the place where he is.
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