Michel De Montaigne

One should always have one's boots on and be ready to leave.

No wind serves him who addresses his voyage to no certain port.

Life in itself is neither good nor evil, it is the place of good and evil, according to what you make it.

The only thing certain is nothing is certain.

There are few men who dare to publish to the world the prayers they make to Almighty God.

There never were, in the world, two opinions alike, no more than two hairs, or two grains; the most universal quality is diversity.

Getting married is very much like going to a restaurant with friends. You order what you want then when you see what the other person has, you wish you had ordered that.

There were many terrible things in my life and most of them never happened.

Valor is strength, not of legs and arms, but of heart and soul; it consists not in the worth of our horse or our weapons, but in our own.

Our great and glorious masterpiece is to live appropriately.

We judge a horse not only by its pace on a racecourse, but also by its walk, nay, when resting in its stable.

The most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness.

There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.

When I dance, I dance; when I sleep, I sleep; yes, and when I walk alone in a beautiful orchard, if my thoughts drift to far-off matters for some part of the time for some other part I lead them back again to the walk, the orchard, to the sweetness of this solitude, to myself.

The least strained and most natural ways of the soul are the most beautiful; the best occupations are the least forced.

I will follow the right side even to the fire, but excluding the fire if I can.

The beautiful souls are they that are universal, open, and ready for all things.

How many condemnations I have witnessed more criminal than the crime!

Indeed, there is no such thing as an altogether ugly woman — or altogether beautiful.

There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees.

There are truths on this side of the Pyrenees which are falsehoods on the other