Quote

Oh, what a valiant faculty is hope, that in a mortal subject, and in a moment, makes nothing of usurping infinity, immensity, eternity, and of supplying its masters indigence, at its pleasure, with all things he can imagine or desire!

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
Nothing
Subjects
Immensity
Things
Imagine
Infinity
Pleasure
Mortal
Moment
Faculty
Hope
Mortals
Indigence
Desire
Eternity
Usurping
Makes
Subject
Supplying
Moments
Masters
Valiant

More quotes by Michel de Montaigne

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Don't be afraid to say what you are not afraid to think
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We are nearer neighbors to ourselves than the whiteness of snow or the weight of stones are to us: if man does not know himself, how should he know his functions and powers?
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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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Learning must not only lodge with us: we must marry her.
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The same reason that makes us chide and brawl and fall out with any of our neighbors, causeth a war to follow between Princes.
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We may so seize on virtue, that if we embrace it with an overgreedy and violent desire, it may become vicious.
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That is why Bias jested with those who were going through the perils of a great storm with him and calling on the gods for help: Shut up, he said, so that they do not realize that you are here with me.
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Make use of life while you have it. Whether you have lived enough depends upon yourself, not on the number of your years.
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I have never observed other effects of whipping than to render boys more cowardly, or more willfully obstinate.
Michel de Montaigne
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We are more unhappy to see people ahead of us than happy to see people behind us.
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People of our time are so formed for agitation and ostentation that goodness, moderation, equability, constancy, and such quiet and obscure qualities are no longer felt.
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To say less of yourself than is true is stupidity, not modesty. To pay yourself less than you are worth is cowardice and pusillanimity.
Michel de Montaigne
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Example is a bright looking-glass, universal and for all shapes to look into.
Michel de Montaigne
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There is nothing so extreme that is not allowed by the custom of some nation or other.
Michel de Montaigne
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Now, of all the benefits that virtue confers upon us, the contempt of death is one of the greatest.
Michel de Montaigne
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Marriage can be compared to a cage: birds outside it despair to enter, and birds within, to escape.
Michel de Montaigne
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A man must keep a little back shop where he can be himself without reserve. In solitude alone can he know true freedom.
Michel de Montaigne
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Thus we should beware of clinging to vulgar opinions, and judge things by reason's way, not by popular say.
Michel de Montaigne
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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.
Michel de Montaigne
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Those that will combat use and custom by the strict rules of grammar do but jest
Michel de Montaigne