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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

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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
Wander
Innermost
Pick
Undertaking
Depth
Innumerable
Picks
Undertakings
Follow
Wandering
Thorny
Movement
Folds
Agitate
Seems
Penetrate
Opaque
Mind
Depths
Fluttering

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There is nothing which so poisons princes as flattery, nor anything whereby wicked men more easily obtain credit and favor with them.
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Glory and repose are things that cannot possibly inhabit in one and the same place.
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God is favorable to those whom he makes to die by degrees 'tis the only benefit of old age. The last death will be so much the less painful: it will kill but a quarter of a man or but half a one at most.
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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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Thus we should beware of clinging to vulgar opinions, and judge things by reason's way, not by popular say.
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The soul which has no fixed purpose in life is lost to be everywhere, is to be nowhere.
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Great authors, when they write about causes, adduce not only those they think are true but also those they do not believe in, provided they have some originality and beauty. They speak truly and usefully enough if they speak ingeniously.
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Any person of honor chooses rather to lose his honor than to lose his conscience.
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For among other things he had been counseled to bring me to love knowledge and duty by my own choice, without forcing my will, and to educate my soul entirely through gentleness and freedom.
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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.
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Disappointment and feebleness imprint upon us a cowardly and valetudinarian virtue.
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We are born to inquire after truth it belongs to a greater power to possess it. It is not, as Democritus said, hid in the bottom of the deeps, but rather elevated to an infinite height in the divine knowledge.
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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.
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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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Ambition is not a vice of little people.
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Who ever saw a doctor use the prescription of his colleague without cutting out or adding something?
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Who is only good that others may know it, and that he may be the better esteemed when 'tis known, who will do well but upon condition that his virtue may be known to men, is one from whom much service is not to be expected.
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The truth of these days is not that which really is, but what every man persuades another man to believe.
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I want death to find me planting my cabbages, but careless of death, and still more of my unfinished garden.
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No wonder, said an Ancient, that chance has so much power over us, since it is by chance that we live.
Michel de Montaigne