1,152 Quotes by Michel de Montaigne

Though the ancient poet in Plutarch tells us we must not trouble the gods with our affairs because they take no heed of our angers and disputes, we can never enough decry the disorderly sallies of our minds.

Våre forfedre oppdro sine døtre til å oppføre seg bluferdig og fryktsomt (følelsene og driftene var de samme), vi oppdrar dem til selvsikkerhet - vi forstår oss ikke på det i det hele tatt. Det passer for de sarmatiske kvinnene som ikke har lov til å ligge med en mann før de egenhendig har drept en annen mann i krig.

The advantage of living is not measured by length, but by use; some men have lived long, and lived little; attend to it while you are in it. It lies in your will, not in the number of years, for you to have lived enough.

To an atheist all writings tend to atheism: he corrupts the most innocent matter with his own venom.

If it be well weighed, to say that a man lieth, is as much to say, as that he is brave towards God and a coward towards men.

All we do is to look after the opinions and learning of others: we ought to make them our own.

Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.

To learn that one has said or done a foolish thing, that is nothing; one must learn that one is nothing but a fool, a much more comprehensive and important lesson".

There is an abecedarian ignorance that precedes knowledge, and a doctoral ignorance that comes after it