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Not because Socrates said so, but because it is in truth my own disposition — and perchance to some excess — I look upon all men as my compatriots, and embrace a Pole as a Frenchman, making less account of the national than of the universal and common bond.

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
Common
Bond
Upon
Disposition
Less
Excess
Compatriots
Making
Account
Frenchman
Truth
Accounts
Perchance
Look
Embrace
Frenchmen
Looks
National
Socrates
Men
Universal
Pole

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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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The beginnings of all things are weak and tender. We must therefore be clear-sighted in the beginnings, for, as in their budding we discern not the danger, so in their full growth we perceive not the remedy.
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Knowledge is an excellent drug but no drug has virtue enough to preserve itself from corruption and decay, if the vessel be tainted and impure wherein it is put to keep.
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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.
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Men of simple understanding, little inquisitive and little instructed, make good Christians.
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The easy, gentle, and sloping path . . . is not the path of true virtue. It demands a rough and thorny road.
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Stupidity and wisdom meet in the same centre of sentiment and resolution, in the suffering of human accidents.
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We are born to inquire into truth it belongs to a greater to possess it
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It is no hard matter to get children but after they are born, then begins the trouble, solicitude, and care rightly to train, principle, and bring them up.
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Tis faith alone that vividly and certainly comprehends the deep mysteries of our religion.
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True freedom is to have power over oneself for everything.
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Is there anything so grave and serious as an ass?
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The relish of good and evil depends in a great measure upon the opinion we have of them.
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Men are tormented by the opinions they have of things, and not the things themselves.
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The plague of man is the opinion of knowledge. That is why ignorance is so recommended by our religion as a quality suitable to belief and obedience.
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Human understanding is marvellously enlightened by daily conversation with men, for we are, otherwise, compressed and heaped up in ourselves, and have our sight limited to the length of our own noses.
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We call comeliness a mischance in the first respect, which belongs principally to the face.
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Seeing that the Senses cannot decide our dispute, being themselves full of uncertainty, we must have recourse to Reason there is no reason but must be built upon another reason: so here we are retreating backwards to infinity.
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Books are pleasant, but if by being over-studious we impair our health and spoil our good humour, two of the best things we have, let us give it over. I, for my part, am one of those who think no fruit derived from them can recompense so great a loss.
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Now, since everything else is furnished with the exact amount of needle and thread required to maintain its being, it is in truth incredible that we alone should be brought into the world in a defective and indigent state, in a state such that we cannot maintain ourselves without external aid.
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