Quotes by Michel Montaigne

We are great fools. "He has passed his life in idleness," we say. "I have done nothing today." What! Haven't you lived? That is not only the fundamental but the most illustrious of your occupations. "Had I been put in a position to manage great affairs, I would have shown what I could do." Have you been able to think out and manage your life? You have performed the greatest work of all. In order to show and release her powers, Nature has no need of fortune; she shows herself equally on all levels, and behind a curtain as well as without one. To compose our character is our duty, not to compose books, and to win, not battles and provinces, but order and tranquility in our conduct. Our great and glorious masterpiece is to live appropriately. All other things, to rule, to lay up treasure, to build, are at most little appendices and props.

I have never known a greater miracle, or monster, than myself.

Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.

Mon opinion est qu'il se faut prêter à autrui et ne se donner quà soi-même.

Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of soul impossible.

I care not so much what I am to others as what I am to myself.

Nothing is so firmly believed as what is least known.

The most manifest sign of wisdom is continued cheerfulness.

No matter that we may mount on stilts, we still must walk on our own legs. And on the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.

How many things served us yesterday for articles of faith, which today are fables to us!