Quote

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.

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
Read
Intention
Voice
Head
Comes
Seeing
Indiscreet
Without
Eyes
Quarrels
Right
Wrong
Intentions
Long
Whatever
Survived
Freedom
Sincerity
Eye
Harm

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Our wisdom and deliberation for the most part follow the lead of chance.
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The soul which has no fixed purpose in life is lost to be everywhere, is to be nowhere.
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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.
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Once you have decided to keep a certain pile, it is no longer yours for you can't spend it.
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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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Gentleness and repose are paramount to everything else in woman.
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I consider it equal injustice to set our heart against natural pleasures and to set our heart too much on them. We should neither pursue them, nor flee them we should accept them.
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A man may be humble through vainglory.
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There is not much less vexation in the government of a private family than in the managing of an entire state.
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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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The clatter of arms drowns out the voice of law.
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As far as fidelity is concerned, there is no animal in the world as treacherous as man.
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Now, of all the benefits that virtue confers upon us, the contempt of death is one of the greatest.
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We may so seize on virtue, that if we embrace it with an overgreedy and violent desire, it may become vicious.
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Our own peculiar human condition is that we are as fit to be laughed at as able to laugh.
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If I am to serve as an instrument of deceit, at least let it be with a clear conscience. I do not want to be considered either so affectionate or so loyal a servant as to be found fit to betray anyone.
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Shame on all eloquence which leaves us with a taste for itself and not for its substance.
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A wellborn mind that is practiced in dealing with people makes itself thoroughly agreeable by itself. Art is nothing else but thelist and record of the productions of such minds.
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Teach him a certain refinement in sorting out and selecting his arguments, with an affection for relevance and so for brevity. Above all let him be taught to throw down his arms and surrender to truth as soon as he perceives it, whether the truth is born at his rival's doing or within himself from some change in his ideas.
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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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