Don't discuss yourself, for you are bound to lose; if you belittle yourself, you are believed; if you praise yourself, you are disbelieved. - Michel de Montaigne
Even on the highest throne in the world, we are still sitting on our ass. - Michel de Montaigne
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know. - Michel de Montaigne
There were many terrible things in my life and most of them never happened. - Michel de Montaigne
Since we cannot match it let us take our revenge by abusing it. - Michel de Montaigne
The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself. - Michel de Montaigne
My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened. - Michel de Montaigne
To philosophize is to doubt. - Michel de Montaigne
When all is summed up, a man never speaks of himself without loss; his accusations of himself are always believed; his praises never. - Michel de Montaigne
There is nothing more notable in Socrates than that he found time, when he was an old man, to learn music and dancing, and thought it time well spent. - Michel de Montaigne
The art of dining well is no slight art, the pleasure not a slight pleasure. - Michel de Montaigne
There is nothing useless in nature; not even uselessness itself. - Michel de Montaigne
A man is not hurt so much by what happens, as by his opinion of what happens. - Michel de Montaigne
I...think it much more supportable to be always alone, than never to be so. - Michel de Montaigne
It is easier to write an indifferent poem than to understand a good one. - Michel de Montaigne
I quote others only in order the better to express myself. - Michel de Montaigne
The least strained and most natural ways of the soul are the most beautiful; the best occupations are the least forced. - Michel de Montaigne
I care not so much what I am to others as what I am to myself. - Michel de Montaigne
Not being able to govern events, I govern myself. - Michel de Montaigne
Each man calls barbarism what is not his own practice for indeed it seems we have no other test of truth and reason that the example and pattern of the opinions and customs of the country we live in. - Michel de Montaigne
I see men ordinarily more eager to discover a reason for things than to find out whether the things are so. - Michel de Montaigne
Experience has taught me this, that we undo ourselves by impatience. Misfortunes have their life and their limits, their sickness and their health. - Michel de Montaigne
Nichts wird so fest geglaubt wie das, was wir am wenigsten wissen. - Michel de Montaigne
I do not care so much what I am to others as I care what I am to myself. - Michel de Montaigne
We need but little learning to live happily. - Michel de Montaigne
He who establishes his argument by noise and command, shows that his reason is weak. - Michel de Montaigne
In the education of children there is nothing like alluring the interest and affection, otherwise you only make so many asses laden with books. - Michel de Montaigne
It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others - Michel de Montaigne
He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak. - Michel de Montaigne
We have nothing to fear but fear itself - Michel de Montaigne
Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it. - Michel de Montaigne
I will follow the right side even to the fire, but excluding the fire if I can. - Michel de Montaigne
I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly. - Michel de Montaigne
A man of understanding has lost nothing, if he has himself. - Michel de Montaigne
The most profound joy has more of gravity than of gaiety in it. - Michel de Montaigne
Man is certainly stark mad. He cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens. - Michel de Montaigne
There is as much difference between us and ourselves as there is between us and others. - Michel de Montaigne
Even on the most exalted throne in the world we are only sitting on our own bottom. - Michel de Montaigne
Nul vent ne faict pour celuy qui n'a point de port destiné - Michel de Montaigne
Without doubt, it is a delightful harmony when doing and saying go together. - 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. - Michel de Montaigne
When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind. - Michel de Montaigne
Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a flea, yet he makes gods by the dozens. - Michel de Montaigne
I listen with attention to the judgment of all men;but so far as I can remember,I have followed none but my own. - Michel de Montaigne
He who is not very strong in memory should not meddle with lying. - Michel de Montaigne
So it is with minds. Unless you keep them busy with some definite subject that will bridle and control them, they throw themselves in disorder hither and yon in the vague field of imagination... And there is no mad or idle fancy that they do not bring forth in the agitation. - Michel de Montaigne
The greatest thing in the world is to know how to live to yourself. - Michel de Montaigne
I enjoy books as misers enjoy treasures, because I know I can enjoy them whenever I please. - Michel de Montaigne
We can be knowledgeable with another man's knowledge, but we can't be wise with another man's wisdom. - Michel de Montaigne
No passion disturbs the soundness of our judgement as anger does. - Michel de Montaigne
If there is such a thing as a good marriage, it is because it resembles friendship rather than love. - Michel de Montaigne
El amor no es más que el deseo furioso de algo que huye de nosotros... - Michel de Montaigne
He who has not a good memory should never take upon himself the trade of lying. - Michel de Montaigne
Fashion is the science of appearances, and it inspires one with the desire to seem rather than to be. - Michel de Montaigne
There are some defeats more triumphant than victories. - Michel de Montaigne
Ambition is not a vice of little people. - Michel de Montaigne
No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately. - Michel de Montaigne
There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees. - Michel de Montaigne
There is no passion so much transports thesincerity of judgement as doth anger - Michel de Montaigne
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. - Michel de Montaigne
Malice sucks up the greater part of her own venom, and poisons herself. - Michel de Montaigne
I believe it to be true that dreams are the true interpreters of our inclinations; but there is art required to sort and understand them. - Michel de Montaigne
Wise men have more to learn of fools than fools of wise men. - Michel de Montaigne
The strongest, most generous, and proudest of all virtues is true courage. - Michel de Montaigne
whoever saw old age that did not applaud the past and condemn the present? - Michel de Montaigne
Confidence in others' honesty is no light testimony of one's own integrity. - Michel de Montaigne
I know not what quintessence of all this mixture, which, seizing my whole will, carried it to plunge and lose itself in his, and that having seized his whole will, brought it back with equal concurrence and appetite to plunge and lose itself in mine. - Michel de Montaigne