Quote

Fortune does us neither good nor hurt she only presents us the matter, and the seed, which our soul, more powerfully than she, turns and applies as she best pleases being the sole cause and sovereign mistress of her own happy or unhappy condition.

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
Causes
Condition
Pleases
Turns
Unhappy
Applies
Happy
Fortune
Presents
Doe
Neither
Mistress
Best
Please
Seed
Soul
Conditions
Sovereign
Matter
Cause
Sole
Good
Hurt
Seeds
Powerfully

More quotes by Michel de Montaigne

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The worthiest man to be known, and for a pattern to be presented to the world, he is the man of whom we have most certain knowledge. He hath been declared and enlightened by the most clear-seeing men that ever were the testimonies we have of him are in faithfulness and sufficiency most admirable.
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Men of simple understanding, little inquisitive and little instructed, make good Christians.
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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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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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He whose mouth is out of taste says the wine is flat.
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The only good histories are those that have been written by the persons themselves who commanded in the affairs whereof they write.
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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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My errors are by now natural and incorrigible but the good that worthy men do the public by making themselves imitable, I shall perhaps do by making myself evitable.
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Learning is a good medicine: but no medicine is powerful enough to preserve itself from taint and corruption independently of defects in the jar that it is kept in. One man sees clearly but does not see straight: consequently he sees what is good but fails to follow it he sees knowledge and does not use it.
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Arts and sciences are not cast in a mould, but are found and perfected by degrees, by often handling and polishing.
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All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed.
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Repentance is no other than a recanting of the will, and opposition to our fancies, which lead us which way they please.
Michel de Montaigne
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It is a sign of contraction of the mind when it is content, or of weariness.
Michel de Montaigne
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The shortest way to arrive at glory should be to do that for conscience which we do for glory. And the virtue of Alexander appears to me with much less vigor in his theater than that of Socrates in his mean and obscure. I can easily conceive Socrates in the place of Alexander, but Alexander in that of Socrates I cannot.
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And if nobody reads me, shall I have wasted my time, when I have beguiled so many idle hours with such pleasant and profitable reflections?
Michel de Montaigne
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If faces were not alike, we could not distinguish men from beasts if they were not different, we could not tell one man from another.
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We need to interpret interpretations more than to interpret things.
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I care not so much what I am to others as what I am to myself. I will be rich by myself, and not by borrowing.
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The first distinction among men, and the first consideration that gave one precedence over another, was doubtless the advantage of beauty.
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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