Quote

Books are pleasant, but if by being over-studious we impair our health and spoil our good humour, two of the best things we have, let us give it over. I, for my part, am one of those who think no fruit derived from them can recompense so great a loss.

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
Book
Fruit
Giving
Loss
Impair
Great
Health
Studious
Good
Books
Recompense
Things
Two
Derived
Think
Part
Spoil
Thinking
Give
Humour
Best
Pleasant

More quotes by Michel de Montaigne

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To know much is often the cause of doubting more.
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The clatter of arms drowns out the voice of law.
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When we have got it, we want something else.
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Whatever the Benefits of Fortune are , they yet require a Palate fit to relish and taste them 'Tis Fruition, and not Possession, that renders us Happy.
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Friendship is a creature formed for a companionship not for a herd.
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Those who make a practice of comparing human actions are never so perplexed as when they try to see them as a whole and in the same light for they commonly contradict each other so strangely that it seems impossible that they have come from the same shop.
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I aim here only at revealing myself, who will perhaps be different tomorrow, if I learn something new which changes me.
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Is there anything so grave and serious as an ass?
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Our zeal works wonders, whenever it supports our inclination toward hatred, cruelty, ambition.
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It is a rare life that remains orderly even in private.
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Since I would rather make of him an able man than a learned man, I would also urge that care be taken to choose a guide with a well-made rather than a well-filled head.
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Socrates and then Archesilaus used to make their pupils speak first they spoke afterwards. 'Obest plerumque iss discere volunt authoritas eorum qui docent.' [For those who want to learn, the obstacle can often be the authority of those who teach]
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An orator of past times declared that his calling was to make small things appear to be grand.
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The plague of man is boasting of his knowledge.
Michel de Montaigne
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Our truth of nowadays is not what is, but what others can be convinced of just as we call money not only that which is legal, but also any counterfeit that will pass.
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The thing I fear most is fear.
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The archer who overshoots his mark does no better than he who falls short of it.
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For a desperate disease a desperate cure.
Michel de Montaigne
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Travelling through the world produces a marvellous clarity in the judgment of men. We are all of us confined and enclosed within ourselves, and see no farther than the end of our nose.
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I have ever loved to repose myself, whether sitting or lying, with my heels as high or higher than my head.
Michel de Montaigne