Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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

More quotes by Michel de Montaigne

Image
Such as are in immediate fear of a losing their estates, of banishment, or of slavery, live in perpetual anguish, and lose all appetite and repose whereas such as are actually poor, slaves, or exiles, ofttimes live as merrily as other folk.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
It is fear that I stand most in fear of, in sharpness it exceeds every other feeling.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
As by some might be saide of me: that here I have but gathered a nosegay of strange floures, and have put nothing of mine unto it, but the thred to binde them. Certes, I have given unto publike opinion, that these borrowed ornaments accompany me but I meane not they should cover or hide me.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
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
Image
It is not my deeds that I write down, it is myself, my essence.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
How many quarrels, and how important, has the doubt as to the meaning of this syllable Hoc produced for the world!
Michel de Montaigne
Image
If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than it was because he was he, and I was I.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
A little of everything and nothing thoroughly, after the French fashion.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
Vexations may be petty, but they are vexations still.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
Virtue shuns ease as a companion. It demands a rough and thorny path.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
I am myself the matter of my book.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
To die is not to play a part in society it is the act of a single person. Let us live and laugh among our friends let us die and sulk among strangers.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
This notion [skepticism] is more clearly understood by asking What do I know?
Michel de Montaigne
Image
I cruelly hate cruelty, both by nature and reason, as the worst of all the vices. But then I am so soft in this that I cannot seea chicken's neck wrung without distress, and cannot bear to hear the squealing of a hare between the teeth of my hounds.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
In true education, anything that comes to our hand is as good as a book: the prank of a page- boy, the blunder of a servant, a bit of table talk - they are all part of the curriculum.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
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.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
Every one is well or ill at ease, according as he finds himself! not he whom the world believes, but he who believes himself to be so, is content and in him alone belief gives itself being and reality
Michel de Montaigne
Image
It is an absolute perfection... to get the very most out of one's individuality.
Michel de Montaigne
Image
An orator of past times declared that his calling was to make small things appear to be grand.
Michel de Montaigne