Quote

For table-talk, I prefer the pleasant and witty before the learned and the grave in bed, beauty before goodness.

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
Goodness
Grave
Conversation
Witty
Graves
Learned
Prefer
Beauty
Table
Talk
Pleasant
Tables
Bed

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Valor is strength, not of legs and arms, but of heart and soul it consists not in the worth of our horse or our weapons, but in our own.
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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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There is no so wretched and coarse a soul wherein some particular faculty is not seen to shine.
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Silence and modesty are very valuable qualities in conversation.
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We must not attach knowledge to the mind, we have to incorporate it there.
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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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God defend me from myself.
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Our great and glorious masterpiece is to live appropriately.
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Take care that old age does not wrinkle your spirit even more than your face.
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When I play with my cat, who knows whether she is not amusing herself with me more than I with her.
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O human creature,you are the investigator without knowledge, the magistrate without jurisdiction, and all in all, the fool of the farce.
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Ceremony forbids us to express by words things that are lawful and natural, and we obey it reason forbids us to do things unlawful and ill, and nobody obeys it.
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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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What kind of truth is it which has these mountains as its boundary and is a lie beyond them?
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In nine lifetimes, you'll never know as much about your cat as your cat knows about you.
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Rash and incessant scolding runs into custom and renders itself despised.
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How many valiant men we have seen to survive their own reputation!
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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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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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A foreign war is a lot milder than a civil war.
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