Quote

He that had never seen a river imagined the first he met to be the sea and the greatest things that have fallen within our knowledge we conclude the extremes that nature makes of the kind.

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
Kind
Greatest
Conclude
Things
Seen
Imagined
Never
Within
River
Knowledge
Extremes
Makes
Fallen
Nature
Rivers
Firsts
Mets
First
Sea

More quotes by Michel de Montaigne

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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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We are more unhappy to see people ahead of us than happy to see people behind us.
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Since I would rather make of him an able man than a learned man, I would also urge that care be taken to choose a guide with a well-made rather than a well-filled head.
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The ceaseless labour of your life is to build the house of death.
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Rejoice in the things that are present all else is beyond thee.
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It is only reasonable to allow the administration of affairs to mothers before their children reach the age prescribed by law at which they themselves can be responsible. But that father would have reared them ill who could not hope that in their maturity they would have more wisdom and competence than his wife.
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The only good histories are those written by those who had command in the events they describe.
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'As a man who knows how to make his education into a rule of life not a means of showing off who can control himself and obey his own principles.' The true mirror of our discourse is the course of our lives.
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Our wisdom and deliberation for the most part follow the lead of chance.
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I honor most those to whom I show least honor and where my soul moves with great alacrity, I forget the proper steps of ceremony.
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The day of your birth leads you to death as well as to life.
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I must use these great men's virtues as a cloak for my weakness.
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It is commonly seene by experience, that excellent memories do rather accompany weake judgements.
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The curiosity of knowing things has been given to man for a scourge.
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Socrates and then Archesilaus used to make their pupils speak first they spoke afterwards. 'Obest plerumque iss discere volunt authoritas eorum qui docent.' [For those who want to learn, the obstacle can often be the authority of those who teach]
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The great and glorious masterpiece of humanity is to know how to live with a purpose.
Michel de Montaigne
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It is an injustice that an old, broken, half-dead father should enjoy alone, in a corner of his hearth, possessions that would suffice for the advancement and maintenance of many children.
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If my intentions were not to be read in my eyes and voice, I should not have survived so long without quarrels and without harm, seeing the indiscreet freedom with which I say, right or wrong, whatever comes into my head.
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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.
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Tis faith alone that vividly and certainly comprehends the deep mysteries of our religion.
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