Michel de Montaigne Quotes
1533 – 1592
French Renaissance philosopher, the inventor of the personal essay. His 'Essays' (1580) explore friendship, self-knowledge and human nature.
“All passions that suffer themselves to be relished and digested are but moderate.”
“He who should teach men to die would at the same time teach them to live.”
“Live as long as you please, you will strike nothing off the time you will have to spend dead.”
“The laws of conscience, which we pretend to be derived from nature, proceed from custom.”
“We must not attach knowledge to the mind, we have to incorporate it there.”
“Every other knowledge is harmful to him who does not have knowledge of goodness.”
“I do not speak the minds of others except to speak my own mind better.”
“I find that the best goodness I have has some tincture of vice.”
“Malice sucks up the greatest part of its own venom, and poisons itself.”
“Let us give Nature a chance; she knows her business better than we do.”
“How many worthy men have we seen survive their own reputation!”
“Nature forms us for ourselves, not for others; to be, not to seem.”
“A little folly is desirable in him that will not be guilty of stupidity.”
“The oldest and best known evil was ever more supportable than one that was new and untried.”
