Quote

It is far more probable that our senses should deceive us, than that an old woman should be carried up a chimney on a broom stick and that it is far less astonishing that witnesses should lie, than that witches should perform the acts that were alleged.

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
Less
Perform
Witches
Woman
Stick
Probable
Acts
Witnesses
Witness
Deceive
Broom
Sticks
Astonishing
Chimney
Senses
Deceiving
Brooms
Atheism
Witch
Alleged
Lying
Carried
Chimneys

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We seem ambitious God's whole work to undo. ...With new diseases on ourselves we war, And with new physic, a worse engine far.
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... whoever believes anything esteems that it is a work of charity to persuade another of it.
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There is a certain consideration, and a general duty of humanity, that binds us not only to the animals, which have life and feeling, but even to the trees and plants. We owe justice to people, and kindness and benevolence to all other creatures who may be susceptible of it. There is some intercourse between them and us, and some mutual obligation.
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Cowardice is the mother of cruelty.
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There is a certain amount of purpose, acquiescence, and satisfaction in nursing one's melancholy.
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The receipts of cookery are swelled to a volume, but a good stomach excels them all to which nothing contributes more than industry and temperance.
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There is a sort of gratification in doing good which makes us rejoice in ourselves.
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He who fears he will suffer, already suffers from his fear.
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The truth of these days is not that which really is, but what every man persuades another man to believe.
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We only labor to stuff the memory, and leave the conscience and the understanding unfurnished and void.
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For table-talk, I prefer the pleasant and witty before the learned and the grave in bed, beauty before goodness.
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It is the mind that maketh good or ill, That maketh wretch or happy, rich or poor.
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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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Persons of mean understandings, not so inquisitive, nor so well instructed, are made good Christians, and by reverence and obedience, implicity believe, and abide by their belief.
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Who ever saw a doctor use the prescription of his colleague without cutting out or adding something?
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It is for little souls, that truckle under the weight of affairs, not to know how clearly to disengage themselves, and not to know how to lay them aside and take them up again.
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Why dost thou complain of this world? It detains thee not thy own cowardice is the cause, if thou livest in pain.
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Nor is it enough to toughen up his soul you must also toughen up his muscles.
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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.
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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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