Quote

I admire the assurance and confidence everyone has in himself, whereas there is hardly anything I am sure I know or that I dare give my word I can do.

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
Give
Whereas
Anything
Hardly
Giving
Admire
Dare
Confidence
Sure
Word
Everyone
Assurance

More quotes by Michel de Montaigne

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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.
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Those who make a practice of comparing human actions are never so perplexed as when they try to see them as a whole and in the same light for they commonly contradict each other so strangely that it seems impossible that they have come from the same shop.
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A man must either imitate the vicious or hate them.
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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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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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Intoxication is calculated to put heart into the elderly and give them delight in dancing.
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If you don't know how to die, don't worry Nature will tell you what to do on the spot, fully and adequately. She will do this job perfectly for you don't bother your head about it.
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I may indeed very well happen to contradict myself but truth, as Demades said, I do not contradict.
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A man should think less of what he eats and more with whom he eats because no food is so satisfying as good company.
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We are, I know not how, double in ourselves, so that what we believe we disbelieve, and cannot rid ourselves of what we condemn.
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Oh senseless man, who cannot possibly make a worm or a flea and yet will create Gods by the dozen!
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All opinions in the world agree in this, that pleasure is our end, although they differ as to the means of attaining it.
Michel de Montaigne
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The beautiful souls are they that are universal, open, and ready for all things.
Michel de Montaigne
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We are born to inquire into truth it belongs to a greater to possess it
Michel de Montaigne
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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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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.
Michel de Montaigne
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Painting myself for others, I have painted my inward self with colors clearer than my original ones. I have no more made my book than my book has made me--a book consubstantial with its author, concerned with my own self, an integral part of my life not concerned with some third-hand, extraneous purpose, like all other books.
Michel de Montaigne
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There is, nevertheless, a certain respect and a general duty of humanity that ties us, not only to beasts that have life and sense, but even to trees and plants.
Michel de Montaigne
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Courtesy is a science of the highest importance. It is...opening a door that we may derive instruction from the example of others, and at the same time enabling us to benefit them by our example, if there be anything in our character worthy of imitation.
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My trade and art is to live.
Michel de Montaigne