Michel de Montaigne (1533 – 1592)
Influential French Renaissance writer, generally considered to be the inventor of the personal essay.
It is the part of cowardice, not of courage, to go and crouch in a hole under a massive tomb, to avoid the blows of fortune.
All the opinions in the world point out that pleasure is our aim.
Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.
Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul.
A wise man sees as much as he ought, not as much as he can.
He who remembers the evils he has undergone, and those that have threatened him, and the slight causes that have changed him from one state to another, prepares himself in that way for future changes and for recognizing his condition. The life of Caesar has no more to show us than our own; an emperor's or an ordinary man's, it is still a life subject to all human accidents.
The world is all a carcass and vanity, The shadow of a shadow, a play And in one word, just nothing.
Montaigne [puts] not self-satisfied understanding but a consciousness astonished at itself at the core of human existence.
He who does not give himself leisure to be thirsty cannot take pleasure in drinking.
There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees.
As far as physicians go, chance is more valuable than knowledge.
Quand je me joue ? ma chatte, qui sçait si elle passe son temps de moy plus que je ne fay d'elle?
There were never in the world two opinions alike, any more than two hairs or two grains. Their most universal quality is diversity.
Courtesy is a science of the highest importance. It is, like grace and beauty in the body, which charm at first sight, and lead on to further intimacy and friendship, opening a door that we may derive instruction from the example of others, and at the same time enabling us to benefit them by our example, if there be anything in our character worthy of imitation.
It is more of a job to interpret the interpretations than to interpret the things, and there are more books about books than about any other subject: we do nothing but write glosses about each other.
The way of the world is to make laws, but follow custom.
Fame and tranquility can never be bedfellows.
There is a sort of gratification in doing good which makes us rejoice in ourselves.
For truth itself does not have the privilege to be employed at any time and in every way; its use, noble as it is, has its circumscriptions and limits.
All of the days go toward death and the last one arrives there.