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

More quotes by Michel de Montaigne

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I am disgusted with innovation, in whatever guise, and with reason, for I have seen very harmful effects of it.
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And to bring in a new word by the head and shoulders, they leave out the old one.
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There is, nevertheless, a certain respect and a general duty of humanity that ties us, not only to beasts that have life and sense, but even to trees and plants.
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Age imprints more wrinkles a in the mind, than it does in the face, and souls are never, or very rarely seen, that in growing old do not smell sour and musty. Man moves all together, both towards his perfection and decay.
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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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A foreign war is a lot milder than a civil war.
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Every one's true worship was that which he found in use in the place where he chanced to be.
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In true friendship, in which I am expert, I give myself to my friend more than I draw him to me. I not only like doing him good better than having him do me good, but also would rather have him do good to himself than to me he does me most good when he does himself good.
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Saying is one thing and doing is another
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It needs courage to be afraid.
Michel de Montaigne
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Lay a beam between these two towers of such width as we need to walk on: there is no philosophical wisdom of such great firmness that it can give us courage to walk on it as we should if it were on the ground.
Michel de Montaigne
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I am one of those who hold that poetry is never so blithe as in a wanton and irregular subject.
Michel de Montaigne
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Princes give mee sufficiently, if they take nothing from me, and doe me much good, if they doe me no hurt: it is all I require of them.
Michel de Montaigne
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Age imprints more wrinkles in the mind than it does on the face.
Michel de Montaigne
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But the touch or company of any man whatsoever stirreth up their heat, which in their solitude was hushed and quiet, and lay as cinders raked up in ashes.
Michel de Montaigne
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In plain Truth, it is no Want, but rather Abundance that creates Avarice.
Michel de Montaigne
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It costs an unreasonable woman no more to pass over one reason than another they cherish themselves most where they are most wrong.
Michel de Montaigne
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Things are not bad in themselves, but our cowardice makes them so.
Michel de Montaigne
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It is fear that I stand most in fear of, in sharpness it exceeds every other feeling.
Michel de Montaigne
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And obstinacy is the sister of constancy, at least in vigour and stability.
Michel de Montaigne