Michel De Montaigne

No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately.

When I express my opinions it is so as to reveal the measure of my sight not the measure of the thing.

To distract myself from tiresome thoughts, I have only to resort to books; they easily draw my mind to themselves and away from other things.

Off I go, rummaging about in books for sayings which please me.

Judgement can do without knowledge: but not knowledge without judgement.

We trouble our life by thoughts about death, and our death by thoughts about life.

I enjoy books as misers enjoy treasures, because I know I can enjoy them whenever I please.

[Marriage] happens as with cages: the birds without despair to get in, and those within despair of getting out.

My business is only to keep myself in motion, whilst motion pleases me; I only walk for the walk's sake.

I speak to the paper, as I speak to the first person I meet.

I know that the arms of friendship are long enough to reach from the one end of the world to the other

The continuous work of our life is to build death.

The greater part of the world's troubles are due to questions of grammar.

I do not believe, from what I have been told about this people, that there is anything barbarous or savage about them, except that we all call barbarous anything that is contrary to our own habits.

If I speak of myself in different ways, that is because I look at myself in different ways.

Every man has within himself the entire human condition

Natural inclinations are assisted and reinforced by education, but they are hardly ever altered or overcome.

Obsession is the wellspring of genius and madness.

There is no knowledge so hard to acquire as the knowledge of how to live this life well and naturally.

In general I ask for books that make use of learning, not those that build it up.

There is as much difference between us and ourselves as there is between us and others.