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The most ordinary things, the most common and familiar, if we could see them in their true light, would turn out to be the grandest miracles.

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
Turn
Turns
Common
True
Grandest
Light
Miracles
Things
Familiar
Would
Miracle
Ordinary

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Intoxication is calculated to put heart into the elderly and give them delight in dancing.
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Necessity is a violent school-mistress.
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I see several animals that live so entire and perfect a life, some without sight, others without hearing: who knows whether to us also one, two, or three, or many other senses, may not be wanting?
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Fie on the eloquence that leaves us craving itself, not things!
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Virtue cannot be followed but for herself, and if one sometimes borrows her mask to some other purpose, she presently pulls it away again.
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'Tis the sharpness of our mind that gives the edge to our pains and pleasures.
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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.
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There is no so wretched and coarse a soul wherein some particular faculty is not seen to shine.
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The pleasantest things in the world are pleasant thoughts, and the great art of life is to have as many of them as possible.
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If I am to serve as an instrument of deceit, at least let it be with a clear conscience. I do not want to be considered either so affectionate or so loyal a servant as to be found fit to betray anyone.
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We judge a horse not only by its pace on a racecourse, but also by its walk, nay, when resting in its stable.
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The common notions that we find in credit around us and infused into our souls by our fathers' seed, these seem to be the universal and natural ones. Whence it comes to pass that what is off the hinges of custom, people believe to be off the hinges of reason.
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The shortest way to arrive at glory should be to do that for conscience which we do for glory. And the virtue of Alexander appears to me with much less vigor in his theater than that of Socrates in his mean and obscure. I can easily conceive Socrates in the place of Alexander, but Alexander in that of Socrates I cannot.
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I have never observed other effects of whipping than to render boys more cowardly, or more willfully obstinate.
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Not only does the wind of accidents stir me according to its blowing, but I am also stirred and troubled by the instability of my attitude.
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The good, supreme, divine poetry is above the rules and reason. Whoever discerns its beauty with a firm, sedate gaze does not see it, any more than he sees the splendor of a lightning flash. It does not persuade our judgement, it ravishes and overwhelms it.
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In true friendship, in which I am expert, I give myself to my friend more than I draw him to me. I not only like doing him good better than having him do me good, but also would rather have him do good to himself than to me he does me most good when he does himself good.
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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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How many valiant men we have seen to survive their own reputation!
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There is a certain amount of purpose, acquiescence, and satisfaction in nursing one's melancholy.
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