Quote

A man must keep a little back shop where he can be himself without reserve. In solitude alone can he know true freedom.

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
Little
Shops
Without
Solitude
Must
Alone
Men
Freedom
Keep
True
Reserve
Littles
Reserves
Back
Shop

More quotes by Michel de Montaigne

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I look upon the too good opinion that man has of himself, as the nursing mother of all false opinions, both public and private.
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Wisdom is a solid and entire building, of which every piece keeps its place and bears its mark.
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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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Who is it that does not voluntarily exchange his health, his repose, and his very life for reputation and glory? The most useless, frivolous, and false coin that passes current among us.
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Aesop, that great man, saw his master making water as he walked. What! he said, Must we void ourselves as we run? Use our timeas best we may, yet a great part of it will still be idly and ill spent.
Michel de Montaigne
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I must accommodate my history to the hour: I may presently change, not only by fortune, but also by intention.
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The world is but a perennial movement. All things in it are in constant motion-the earth, the rocks of the Caucasus, the pyramids of Egypt-both with the common motion and with their own.
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There is nothing of evil in life for him who rightly comprehends that death is no evil to know how to die delivers us from all subjection and constraint.
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I quote others only in order the better to express myself.
Michel de Montaigne
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In plain Truth, it is no Want, but rather Abundance that creates Avarice.
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As by some might be saide of me: that here I have but gathered a nosegay of strange floures, and have put nothing of mine unto it, but the thred to binde them. Certes, I have given unto publike opinion, that these borrowed ornaments accompany me but I meane not they should cover or hide me.
Michel de Montaigne
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When all is summed up, a man never speaks of himself without loss his accusations of himself are always believed his praises never.
Michel de Montaigne
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Repentance is no other than a recanting of the will, and opposition to our fancies, which lead us which way they please.
Michel de Montaigne
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Our speech has its weaknesses and its defects, like all the rest. Most of the occasions for the troubles of the world are grammatical.
Michel de Montaigne
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We have so much ill fortune as inconstancy, or so much bad purpose as folly, we are not so full of evil as we are of inanity we are not so wretched as we are base
Michel de Montaigne
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A straight oar looks bent in the water. It matters not merely that we see a thing, but how we see it.
Michel de Montaigne
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Health is a precious thing, and the only one, in truth, meriting that a man should lay out not only his time, sweat, labor and goods, but also life itself to obtain it.
Michel de Montaigne
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Age imprints more wrinkles in the mind than it does on the face.
Michel de Montaigne
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The knowledge of courtesy and good manners is a very necessary study. It is like grace and beauty, that which begets liking and an inclination to love one another at the first sight.
Michel de Montaigne
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There is nothing useless in nature not even uselessness itself
Michel de Montaigne