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There is a huge gulf between the man who follows the conventions and laws of his country and the man who sets out to regiment them and to change them.
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
Change
Gulf
Country
Conventions
Men
Follows
Sets
Laws
Huge
Law
Political
Regiment
More quotes by Michel de Montaigne
Can anything be imagined so ridiculous that this miserable and wretched creature, who is not so much as master of himself, but subject to the injuries of all things, should call himself master and emperor of the world, of which he has not power to know the least part, much less to command the whole?
Michel de Montaigne
We wake sleeping, and sleep waking. I do not see so clearly in my sleep but as to my being awake, I never found it clear enough and free from clouds.
Michel de Montaigne
Every man has within himself the entire human condition
Michel de Montaigne
I am myself the matter of my book.
Michel de Montaigne
The world is all a carcass and vanity, The shadow of a shadow, a play And in one word, just nothing.
Michel de Montaigne
A volunteer, you assign yourself specific roles and risks according to your judgement of their brilliance and importance, and you see when life itself may be justifiably devoted to them.
Michel de Montaigne
There is no doubt that Greek and Latin are great and handsome ornaments, but we buy them too dear.
Michel de Montaigne
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
Habit is a second nature.
Michel de Montaigne
It is a sign of contraction of the mind when it is content, or of weariness.
Michel de Montaigne
Nature has, herself, I fear, imprinted in man a kind of instinct to inhumanity.
Michel de Montaigne
For a desperate disease a desperate cure.
Michel de Montaigne
God defend me from being an honest man according to the description which every day I see made by each man to his own glorification
Michel de Montaigne
Friendship that possesses the whole soul, and there rules and sways with an absolute sovereignty, can admit of no rival.
Michel de Montaigne
Difficulty is a coin the learned make use of like jugglers, to conceal the inanity of their art.
Michel de Montaigne
This notion [skepticism] is more clearly understood by asking What do I know?
Michel de Montaigne
It has never occurred to me to wish for empire or royalty, nor for the eminence of those high and commanding fortunes. My aim lies not in that direction I love myself too well.
Michel de Montaigne
The great and glorious masterpiece of men is to live to the point. All other things-to reign, to hoard, to build-are, at most, but inconsiderable props and appendages.
Michel de Montaigne
Amongst all other vices there is none I hate more than cruelty, both by nature and judgment, as the extremest of all vices.
Michel de Montaigne
It is a thorny undertaking, and more so than it seems, to follow a movement so wandering as that of our mind, to penetrate the opaque depths of its innermost folds, to pick out and immobilize the innumerable flutterings that agitate it.
Michel de Montaigne
