"The worst of my actions or conditions seem not so ugly unto me as I find it both ugly and base not to dare to avouch for them."

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More quotes from: Michel de Montaigne

• "A good marriage would be between a blind wife and a deaf husband. "
• "A wise man sees as much as he ought, not as much as he can. "
• "Age imprints more wrinkles in the mind than it does on the face. "
• "Ambition is not a vice of little people. "
• "An untempted woman cannot boast of her chastity. "
• "Confidence in the goodness of another is good proof of one's own goodness. "
• "Covetousness is both the beginning and the end of the devil's alphabet - the first ..."
• "Death, they say, acquits us of all obligations. "
• "Even from their infancy we frame them to the sports of love: their instruction, behavior, ..."
• "Fame and tranquility can never be bedfellows. "
• "For truly it is to be noted, that children's plays are not sports, and should ..."
• "Fortune, seeing that she could not make fools wise, has made them lucky. "
• "Hath God obliged himself not to exceed the bounds of our knowledge? "
• "He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak. "
• "He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears. "
• "How many things we held yesterday as articles of faith which today we tell as ..."
• "I care not so much what I am to others as what I am to ..."
• "I do myself a greater injury in lying than I do him of whom I ..."
• "I do not speak the minds of others except to speak my own mind better. "
• "I know well what I am fleeing from but not what I am in search ..."
• "I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason ..."
• "I quote others only in order the better to express myself. "
• "If a man should importune me to give a reason why I loved him, I ..."
• "If a man urge me to tell wherefore I loved him, I feel it cannot ..."
• "If you don't know how to die, don't worry; Nature will tell you what to ..."
• "If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more ..."
• "In true education, anything that comes to our hand is as good as a book: ..."

• "It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others. "
• "It is not death, it is dying that alarms me. "
• "It is the mind that maketh good or ill, That maketh wretch or happy, rich ..."
• "It should be noted that children at play are not playing about; their games should ..."
• "Labour not after riches first, and think thou afterwards wilt enjoy them. He who neglecteth ..."
• "Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself. "
• "Let us not be ashamed to speak what we shame not to think. "
• "Let us permit nature to have her way. She understands her business better than we ..."
• "Love to his soul gave eyes; he knew things are not as they seem. The ..."
• "Make your educational laws strict and your criminal ones can be gentle; but if you ..."
• "Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and ..."
• "Marriage, a market which has nothing free but the entrance. "
• "My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened. "
• "My trade and art is to live. "
• "No wind serves him who addresses his voyage to no certain port. "
• "Not being able to govern events, I govern myself. "
• "Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it. "
• "Nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know. "
• "Of all our infirmities, the most savage is to despise our being. "
• "Once conform, once do what others do because they do it, and a kind of ..."
• "One may be humble out of pride. "
• "Rejoice in the things that are present; all else is beyond thee. "
• "Since we cannot attain unto it, let us revenge ourselves with railing against it. "
• "The ceaseless labour of your life is to build the house of death. "
• "The confidence in another man's virtue is no light evidence of a man's own, and ..."
• "The entire lower world was created in the likeness of the higher world. All that ..."

• "The most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness. "
• "The most manifest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness; her state is like that ..."
• "The public weal requires that men should betray, and lie, and massacre. "
• "The strangest, most generous, and proudest of all virtues is true courage. "
• "The thing I fear most is fear. "
• "The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use ..."
• "The way of the world is to make laws, but follow custom. "
• "The world is all a carcass and vanity, The shadow of a shadow, a play ..."
• "The world is but a perpetual see-saw. "
• "There are some defeats more triumphant than victories. "
• "There is a sort of gratification in doing good which makes us rejoice in ourselves. "
• "There is as much difference between us and ourselves as between us and others. "
• "There is little less trouble in governing a private family than a whole kingdom. "
• "There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees. "
• "There is no passion so contagious as that of fear. "
• "There is no pleasure to me without communication: there is not so much as a ..."
• "There is not much less vexation in the government of a private family than in ..."
• "Those who have compared our life to a dream were right... we were sleeping wake, ..."
• "'Tis the sharpness of our mind that gives the edge to our pains and pleasures. "
• "Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul. "
• "We can be knowledgable with other men's knowledge but we cannot be wise with other ..."
• "We only labor to stuff the memory, and leave the conscience and the understanding unfurnished ..."
• "What do I know? "
• "When I play with my cat, who knows whether she is not amusing herself with ..."