Quote

Petty vexations may at times be petty, but still they are vexations. The smallest and most inconsiderable annoyances are the most piercing. As small letters weary the eye most, so the smallest affairs disturb us most.

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
Letters
Vexation
Trouble
Annoyance
Small
Disturb
Eye
Petty
Times
Weary
Inconsiderable
Stills
Smallest
Annoyances
Still
Affairs
Vexations
May
Affair
Piercing

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'Tis the sharpness of our mind that gives the edge to our pains and pleasures.
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The strength of any plan depends on the time. Circumstances and things eternally shift and change.
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When we have got it, we want something else.
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A learned man is not learned in all things but a sufficient man is sufficient throughout, even to ignorance itself.
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A liar would be brave toward God, while he is a coward toward men for a lie faces God, and shrinks from man.
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The good, supreme, divine poetry is above the rules and reason. Whoever discerns its beauty with a firm, sedate gaze does not see it, any more than he sees the splendor of a lightning flash. It does not persuade our judgement, it ravishes and overwhelms it.
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We trouble our life by thoughts about death, and our death by thoughts about life.
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The day of your birth leads you to death as well as to life.
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Death pays all debts.
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I put forward formless and unresolved notions, as do those who publish doubtful questions to debate in the schools, not to establish the truth but to seek it.
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The souls of emperors and cobblers are cast in the same mold...The same reason that makes us wrangle with a neighbor creates a war betwixt princes.
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To know much is often the cause of doubting more.
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It is commonly seene by experience, that excellent memories do rather accompany weake judgements.
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The world is all a carcass and vanity, The shadow of a shadow, a play And in one word, just nothing.
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Writing does not cause misery. It is born of misery.
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I have seen people rude by being over-polite.
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The only good histories are those written by those who had command in the events they describe.
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Speaking is half his that speaks, and half his that hears.
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For among other things he had been counseled to bring me to love knowledge and duty by my own choice, without forcing my will, and to educate my soul entirely through gentleness and freedom.
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It is not my deeds that I write down, it is myself, my essence.
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