Quote

To compose our character is our duty, not to compose books, and to win, not battles and provinces, but order and tranquillity in our conduct.

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
Book
Conduct
Self
Behavior
Battle
Duty
Books
Tranquillity
Winning
Compose
Order
Provinces
Character
Battles

More quotes by Michel de Montaigne

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He who is not sure of his memory, should not undertake the trade of lying.
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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.
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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]
Michel de Montaigne
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Have you known how to take rest? You have done more than he who hath taken empires and cities.
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The plague of man is the opinion of knowledge. That is why ignorance is so recommended by our religion as a quality suitable to belief and obedience.
Michel de Montaigne
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It is in the enjoyment and not in mere possession that makes for happiness.
Michel de Montaigne
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There is perhaps no more obvious vanity than to write of it so vainly.
Michel de Montaigne
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Shame on all eloquence which leaves us with a taste for itself and not for its substance.
Michel de Montaigne
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What kind of truth is it which has these mountains as its boundary and is a lie beyond them?
Michel de Montaigne
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There is no wish more natural than the wish to know.
Michel de Montaigne
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Excellent memories are often coupled with feeble judgments.
Michel de Montaigne
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He who does not live in some degree for others, hardly lives for himself.
Michel de Montaigne
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Is it not a noble farce, wherein kings, republics, and emperors have for so many ages played their parts, and to which the whole vast universe serves for a theatre?
Michel de Montaigne
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It is a human tendency to measure truth and error by our capacity.
Michel de Montaigne
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Difficulty is a coin the learned make use of like jugglers, to conceal the inanity of their art.
Michel de Montaigne
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Vexations may be petty, but they are vexations still.
Michel de Montaigne
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O human creature,you are the investigator without knowledge, the magistrate without jurisdiction, and all in all, the fool of the farce.
Michel de Montaigne
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Oh, what a valiant faculty is hope.
Michel de Montaigne
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Whatever can be done another day can be done today.
Michel de Montaigne
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Nobody is exempt from saying stupid things, the harm is to do it presumptuously.
Michel de Montaigne