“The strangest, most generous, and proudest of all virtues is true courage.”
Courage
“There is little less trouble in governing a private family than a whole kingdom.”
FamilyAll Quotes by Michel de Montaigne
“If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I was I.”
Love“The ceaseless labour of your life is to build the house of death.”
Death“I put forward formless and unresolved notions, as do those who publish doubtful questions to debate in the schools, not to establish the truth but to seek it.”
Truth“If there is such a thing as a good marriage, it is because it resembles friendship rather than love.”
Friendship“Those who have compared our life to a dream were right... we were sleeping wake, and waking sleep.”
Dreams“There is no passion so contagious as that of fear.”
Fear“Marriage, a market which has nothing free but the entrance.”
Marriage“There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.”
Failure“The thing I fear most is fear.”
Fear“We can be knowledgable with other men's knowledge but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom.”
Knowledge“It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others.”
Intelligence“I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.”
Education“The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them... Whether you find satisfaction in life depends not on your tale of years, but on your will.”
Life“Let us permit nature to have her way. She understands her business better than we do.”
Business“The confidence in another man's virtue is no light evidence of a man's own, and God willingly favors such a confidence.”
God“Every one rushes elsewhere and into the future, because no one wants to face one's own inner self.”
Future“Death, they say, acquits us of all obligations.”
Death“There is no desire more natural than the desire for knowledge.”
Knowledge“I write to keep from going mad from the contradictions I find among mankind - and to work some of those contradictions out for myself.”
Work