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We have so much ill fortune as inconstancy, or so much bad purpose as folly, we are not so full of evil as we are of inanity we are not so wretched as we are base

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
Fortune
Full
Purpose
Inanity
Evil
Inconstancy
Much
Wretched
Base
Folly
Ill

More quotes by Michel de Montaigne

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I am one of those who hold that poetry is never so blithe as in a wanton and irregular subject.
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We should be similarly wary of accepting common opinions we should judge them by the ways of reason not by popular vote.
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I am afraid that our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, and that we have more curiosity than understanding. We grasp at everything, but catch nothing except wind.
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The most certain sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness her state is like that of things in the regions above the moon, always clear and serene.
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Every one rushes elsewhere and into the future, because no one wants to face one's own inner self.
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In his commerce with men I mean him to include- and that principally- those who live only in the memory of books. By means of history he will frequent those great souls of former years. If you want it to be so, history can be a waste of time it can also be, if you want it to be so, a study bearing fruit beyond price.
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All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.
Michel de Montaigne
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Human understanding is marvellously enlightened by daily conversation with men, for we are, otherwise, compressed and heaped up in ourselves, and have our sight limited to the length of our own noses.
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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.
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Every movement reveals us.
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My art and profession is to live.
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The virtue of the soul does not consist in flying high, but in walking orderly.
Michel de Montaigne
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If health and a fair day smile upon me, I am a very good fellow if a corn trouble my toe, I am sullen, out of humor, and inaccessible.
Michel de Montaigne
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Lay a beam between these two towers of such width as we need to walk on: there is no philosophical wisdom of such great firmness that it can give us courage to walk on it as we should if it were on the ground.
Michel de Montaigne
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That is why Bias jested with those who were going through the perils of a great storm with him and calling on the gods for help: Shut up, he said, so that they do not realize that you are here with me.
Michel de Montaigne
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He that had never seen a river, imagined the first he met with to be the sea.
Michel de Montaigne
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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.
Michel de Montaigne
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It is easier to write an indifferent poem than to understand a good one.
Michel de Montaigne
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Who does not in some sort live to others, does not live much to himself.
Michel de Montaigne
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Age imprints more wrinkles a in the mind, than it does in the face, and souls are never, or very rarely seen, that in growing old do not smell sour and musty. Man moves all together, both towards his perfection and decay.
Michel de Montaigne