So it is with minds. Unless you keep them busy with some definite subject that will bridle and control them, they throw themselves in disorder hither and yon in the vague field of imagination ... And there is no mad or idle fancy that they do not bring forth in the agitation.


Michel de Montaigne

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Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
Confidence in others' honesty is no light testimony of one's own integrity.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
All is a-swarm with commentaries: of authors there is a dearth.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
The strongest, most generous, and proudest of all virtues is true courage.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
I am afraid that our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, and that we have more curiosity than underst...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
Don't discuss yourself, for you are bound to lose; if you belittle yourself, you are believed; if yo...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
It is not death, it is dying that alarms me.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
If you don't know how to die, don't worry; Nature will tell you what to do on the spot, full...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
No wind serves him who addresses his voyage to no certain port.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
In true education, anything that comes to our hand is as good as a book: the prank of a page- boy, t...
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.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
Covetousness is both the beginning and the end of the devil's alphabet - the first vice in corru...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
A good marriage would be between a blind wife and a deaf husband.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them... Whether you find...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
In nine lifetimes, you'll never know as much about your cat as your cat knows about you.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
If I speak of myself in different ways, that is because I look at myself in different ways.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
The ceaseless labour of your life is to build the house of death.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
I do not care so much what I am to others as I care what I am to myself.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
Even from their infancy we frame them to the sports of love: their instruction, behavior, attire, gr...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
It is a sign of contraction of the mind when it is content, or of weariness. A spirited mind never s...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
Stubborn and ardent clinging to one's opinion is the best proof of stupidity.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
How many things we held yesterday as articles of faith which today we tell as fables.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
A straight oar looks bent in the water. What matters is not merely that we see things but how we see...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
Fame and tranquility can never be bedfellows.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
It is a disaster that wisdom forbids you to be satisfied with yourself and always sends you away dis...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
It should be noted that the games of children are not games, and must be considered as their most s...
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
Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of soul, impossible.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
For truly it is to be noted, that children's plays are not sports, and should be deemed as their...
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 ...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
I put forward formless and unresolved notions, as do those who publish doubtful questions to debate ...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
Wit is a dangerous weapon, even to the possessor, if he knows not how to use it discreetly.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
Those that will combat use and custom by the strict rules of grammar do but jest.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
The greater part of the world's troubles are due to questions of grammar
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
Malice sucks up the greater part of her own venom, and poisons herself.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
I quote others only in order the better to express myself.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a flea, yet he makes gods by the dozens.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE