Michel de Montaigne Quotes

There is no passion so contagious as that of fear.

Fortune, seeing that she could not make fools wise, has made them lucky.

Apollo said that every one's true worship was that which he found in use in the place where he chanced to be.

The world is but a perpetual see-saw.

All is a-swarm with commentaries; of authors there is a dearth.

There is no more expensive thing than a free gift.

It is fear that I am most afraid of.

If I speak of myself in different ways, that is because I look at myself in different ways.

Profiting little by good examples, I make use of those that are ill, which are everywhere to be found: I endeavor to render myself as agreeable as I see others offensive; as constant as I see others fickle; as affable as I see others rough; as good as I see others evil: but I propose to myself impracticable measures.

My trade and my art is living.

Kings and philosophers defecate, and so do ladies.

Men are most apt to believe what they least understand.

The contradictions of judgments, then, neither offend nor alter, they only rouse and exercise me. We evade correction, whereas we ought to offer and present ourselves to it, especially when it appears in the form of conference, and not of authority.

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.

Les montagnes bougent, c'est juste qu'elles bougent lentement.