Michel de Montaigne quotes

“Confidence in the goodness of another is good proof of one's own goodness.”

— Michel de Montaigne

“Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul.”

— Michel de Montaigne

“There is no pleasure to me without communication: there is not so much as a sprightly thought comes into my mind that it does not grieve me to have produced alone, and that I have no one to tell it to.”

— Michel de Montaigne

“He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.”

— Michel de Montaigne

“I write to keep from going mad from the contradictions I find among mankind - and to work some of those contradictions out for myself.”

— Michel de Montaigne

“'Tis the sharpness of our mind that gives the edge to our pains and pleasures.”

— Michel de Montaigne

“If ordinary people complain that I speak too much of myself, I complain that they do not even think of themselves.”

— Michel de Montaigne

“One may be humble out of pride.”

— Michel de Montaigne

“The most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness.”

— Michel de Montaigne

“There is no passion so contagious as that of fear.”

— Michel de Montaigne

“Love to his soul gave eyes; he knew things are not as they seem. The dream is his real life; the world around him is the dream.”

— Michel de Montaigne

“Marriage, a market which has nothing free but the entrance.”

— Michel de Montaigne

“No wind serves him who addresses his voyage to no certain port.”

— Michel de Montaigne

“A wise man sees as much as he ought, not as much as he can.”

— Michel de Montaigne

“The soul which has no fixed purpose in life is lost; to be everywhere, is to be nowhere.”

— Michel de Montaigne

“Fame and tranquility can never be bedfellows.”

— Michel de Montaigne

“Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of soul, impossible.”

— Michel de Montaigne

“A straight oar looks bent in the water. What matters is not merely that we see things but how we see them.”

— Michel de Montaigne

“It is the mind that maketh good or ill, That maketh wretch or happy, rich or poor.”

— Michel de Montaigne

“It should be noted that children at play are not playing about; their games should be seen as their most serious-minded activity.”

— Michel de Montaigne