Michel de Montaigne Quotes

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Michel de Montaigne

Profession : Philosopher

Birth : February 28, 1533

In nine lifetimes, you'll never know as much about your cat as your cat knows about you.

Michel de Montaigne

Every one rushes elsewhere and into the future, because no one wants to face one's own inner self.

Michel de Montaigne

I set forth a humble and inglorious life; that does not matter. You can tie up all moral philosophy with a common and private life just as well as with a life of richer stuff. Each man bears the entire form of man's estate.

Michel de Montaigne

When I play with my cat, who knows whether she is not amusing herself with me more than I with her.

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

The world is but a perpetual see-saw.

Michel de Montaigne

I quote others only in order the better to express myself.

Michel de Montaigne

Rejoice in the things that are present; all else is beyond thee.

Michel de Montaigne

Once conform, once do what others do because they do it, and a kind of lethargy steals over all the finer senses of 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

There is a sort of gratification in doing good which makes us rejoice in ourselves.

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

Confidence in others' honesty is no light testimony of one's own integrity.

Michel de Montaigne

Few men have been admired of their familiars.

Michel de Montaigne

It is a monstrous thing that I will say, but I will say it all the same: I find in many things more restraint and order in my morals than in my opinions, and my lust less depraved than my reason.

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

Of all our infirmities, the most savage is to despise our being.

Michel de Montaigne

Wit is a dangerous weapon, even to the possessor, if he knows not how to use it discreetly.

Michel de Montaigne

The beautiful souls are they that are universal, open, and ready for all things.

Michel de Montaigne

I do not speak the minds of others except to speak my own mind better.

Michel de Montaigne