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Who is only good that others may know it, and that he may be the better esteemed when 'tis known, who will do well but upon condition that his virtue may be known to men, is one from whom much service is not to be expected.
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
Well
Conditions
Much
Virtue
Good
Known
Men
Upon
Esteemed
Others
Condition
May
Expected
Better
Goodness
Wells
Service
More quotes by Michel de Montaigne
A man must always study, but he must not always go to school: what a contemptible thing is an old abecedarian!
Michel de Montaigne
Every period of life has its peculiar prejudices whoever saw old age, that did not applaud the past, and condemn the present times?
Michel de Montaigne
Glory consists of two parts: the one in setting too great a value upon ourselves, and the other in setting too little a value upon others.
Michel de Montaigne
Human wisdom makes as ill use of her talent when she exercises it in rescinding from the number and sweetness of those pleasures that are naturally our due, as she employs it favorably and well in artificially disguising and tricking out the ills of life to alleviate the sense of them.
Michel de Montaigne
Great authors, when they write about causes, adduce not only those they think are true but also those they do not believe in, provided they have some originality and beauty. They speak truly and usefully enough if they speak ingeniously.
Michel de Montaigne
A lady could not boast of her chastity who was never tempted.
Michel de Montaigne
Water, earth, air, fire, and the other parts of this structure of mine are no more instruments of your life than instruments of your death. Why do you fear your last day? It contributes no more to your death than each of the others. The last step does not cause the fatigue, but reveals it. All days travel toward death, the last one reaches it.
Michel de Montaigne
Virtue shuns ease as a companion. It demands a rough and thorny path.
Michel de Montaigne
Our great and glorious masterpiece is to live appropriately.
Michel de Montaigne
Virtue cannot be followed but for herself, and if one sometimes borrows her mask to some other purpose, she presently pulls it away again.
Michel de Montaigne
I may indeed very well happen to contradict myself but truth, as Demades said, I do not contradict.
Michel de Montaigne
Nothing prints more lively in our minds than something we wish to forget.
Michel de Montaigne
Is it reasonable that even the arts should take advantage of and profit by our natural stupidity and feebleness of mind?
Michel de Montaigne
Health is a precious thing, and the only one, in truth, meriting that a man should lay out not only his time, sweat, labor and goods, but also life itself to obtain it.
Michel de Montaigne
For there is no air that men so greedily draw in, that diffuses itself so soon, and that penetrates so deep as that of license.
Michel de Montaigne
When we have got it, we want something else.
Michel de Montaigne
There is no wish more natural than the wish to know.
Michel de Montaigne
Who does not in some sort live to others, does not live much to himself.
Michel de Montaigne
The truth of these days is not that which really is, but what every man persuades another man to believe.
Michel de Montaigne
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.
Michel de Montaigne