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The wise man should withdraw his soul within, out of the crowd, and keep it in freedom and power to judge things freely but as for externals, he should wholly follow the accepted fashions and forms.

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
Men
Within
Judge
Society
Accepted
Externals
Freedom
Forms
Fashions
Keep
Judging
Withdraw
Form
Follow
Freely
Power
Fashion
Wholly
Soul
Wise
Crowd
Things
Wisdom
Crowds

More quotes by Michel de Montaigne

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In the examples that I here bring in of what I have [read], heard, done or said, I have refrained from daring to alter even the smallest and most indifferent circumstances. My conscience falsifies not an iota for my knowledge I cannot answer.
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The memory represents to us not what we choose but what it pleases.
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The reverse side of truth has a hundred thousand shapes and no defined limits.
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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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There is no doubt that Greek and Latin are great and handsome ornaments, but we buy them too dear.
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The strength of any plan depends on the time. Circumstances and things eternally shift and change.
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I find no quality so easy for a man to counterfeit as devotion, though his life and manner are not conformable to it the essence of it is abstruse and occult, but the appearances easy and showy.
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I am one of those who hold that poetry is never so blithe as in a wanton and irregular subject.
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The relish of good and evil depends in a great measure upon the opinion we have of them.
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I have seen people rude by being over-polite.
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Of all our infirmities, the most savage is to despise our being.
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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.
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We have power over nothing except our will.
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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.
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The first lessons with which we should irrigate his mind should be those which teach him to know himself, and to know how to die ... and to live.
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The corruption of the age is made up by the particular contribution of every individual man some contribute treachery, others injustice, atheism, tyranny, avarice, cruelty, according to their power.
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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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Long life, and short, are by death made all one for there is no long, nor short, to things that are no more.
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Saying is one thing and doing is another
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It takes so much to be a king that he exists only as such. That extraneous glare that surrounds him hides him and conceals him from us our sight breaks and is dissipated by it being filled and arrested by this strong light.
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