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It has never occurred to me to wish for empire or royalty, nor for the eminence of those high and commanding fortunes. My aim lies not in that direction I love myself too well.

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
Never
Direction
Commanding
Love
Fortune
Eminence
Lies
Fortunes
High
Royalty
Lying
Occurred
Wish
Empire
Wells
Empires
Well
Aim

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Every man may speak truly, but to speak methodically, prudently, and fully is a talent that few men have.
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It is commonly seene by experience, that excellent memories do rather accompany weake judgements.
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A good marriage ... is a sweet association in life: full of constancy, trust, and an infinite number of useful and solid services and mutual obligations.
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Each person calls barbarism whatever is not his or her own practice.... We may call Cannibals barbarians, in respect to the rulesof reason, but not in respect to ourselves, who surpass them in every kind of barbarity.
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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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Ambition is not a vice of little people.
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If you don't know how to die, don't worry Nature will tell you what to do on the spot, fully and adequately. She will do this job perfectly for you don't bother your head about it.
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I want death to find me planting my cabbages, but careless of death, and still more of my unfinished garden.
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Amongst all other vices there is none I hate more than cruelty, both by nature and judgment, as the extremest of all vices.
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He who fears he will suffer, already suffers from his fear.
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Can anything be imagined so ridiculous that this miserable and wretched creature, who is not so much as master of himself, but subject to the injuries of all things, should call himself master and emperor of the world, of which he has not power to know the least part, much less to command the whole?
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For me, who only desire to become wise, not more learned or eloquent, these logical or Aristotelian dispositions of parts are of no use.
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Silence and modesty are very valuable qualities in conversation.
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He whose mouth is out of taste says the wine is flat.
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Any person of honor chooses rather to lose his honor than to lose his conscience.
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Example is a bright looking-glass, universal and for all shapes to look into.
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I am myself the matter of my book.
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Nature has with a Motherly Tenderness observed this, that the Action she has enjoyned us for our Necessity should be also pleasant to us, and invites us to them, not only by Reason, but also by Appetite: and ’tis Injustice to infringe her Laws.
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A man should ever, as much as in him lieth, be ready booted to take his journey, and above all things look he have then nothing to do but with himself.
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There is little less trouble in governing a private family than a whole kingdom.
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