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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.
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
Nobody
Obeys
Words
Unlawful
Natural
Lawful
Reason
Propriety
Things
Ceremony
Obey
Ill
Express
Forbids
More quotes by Michel de Montaigne
A straight oar looks bent in the water. It matters not merely that we see a thing, but how we see it.
Michel de Montaigne
Obstinacy and heat in argument are surest proofs of folly. Is there anything so stubborn, obstinate, disdainful, contemplative, grave, or serious, as an ass?
Michel de Montaigne
The finest lives in my opinion are the common model, without miracle and without extravagance.
Michel de Montaigne
For a desperate disease a desperate cure.
Michel de Montaigne
Wisdom has its excesses, and has no less need of moderation than folly.
Michel de Montaigne
It is probable that the principal credit of miracles, visions, enchantments, and such extraordinary occurrences comes from the power of imagination, acting principally upon the minds of the common people, which are softer.
Michel de Montaigne
Aesop, that great man, saw his master making water as he walked. What! he said, Must we void ourselves as we run? Use our timeas best we may, yet a great part of it will still be idly and ill spent.
Michel de Montaigne
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.
Michel de Montaigne
Every man has within himself the entire human condition
Michel de Montaigne
I do myself a greater injury in lying than I do him of whom I tell a lie.
Michel de Montaigne
Let us permit nature to have her way. She understands her business better than we do.
Michel de Montaigne
The confidence in another man's virtue is no light evidence of a man's own, and God willingly favors such a confidence.
Michel de Montaigne
There is a plague on Man, the opinion that he knows something.
Michel de Montaigne
Every one rushes elsewhere and into the future, because no one wants to face one's own inner self.
Michel de Montaigne
Wisdom is a solid and entire building, of which every piece keeps its place and bears its mark.
Michel de Montaigne
Behold the hands, how they promise, conjure, appeal, menace, pray, supplicate, refuse, beckon, interrogate, admire, confess, cringe, instruct, command, mock and what not besides, with a variation and multiplication of variation which makes the tongue envious.
Michel de Montaigne
We are more unhappy to see people ahead of us than happy to see people behind us.
Michel de Montaigne
It is a disaster that wisdom forbids you to be satisfied with yourself and always sends you away dissatisfied and fearful, whereas stubbornness and foolhardiness fill their hosts with joy and assurance.
Michel de Montaigne
Thus we should beware of clinging to vulgar opinions, and judge things by reason's way, not by popular say.
Michel de Montaigne
We may so seize on virtue, that if we embrace it with an overgreedy and violent desire, it may become vicious.
Michel de Montaigne
