All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.
Michel De MontaigneRead
Life in itself is neither good nor evil, it is the place of good and evil, according to what you make it.
Interpretation
Life is neutral and shaped by our actions and choices.
This quote by Michel De Montaigne suggests that life itself does not possess inherent qualities of good or evil. Instead, it serves as a canvas where human actions and decisions define the moral landscape, indicating that our perspectives and choices influence our understanding of life positively or negatively.
In practice
In a motivational speech about personal growth, this quote can inspire individuals to take responsibility for their life experiences.
All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.
All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed.
Pythagoras used to say that life resembles the Olympic Games: a few people strain their muscles to carry off a prize; others bring trinkets to sell to the crowd for gain; and some there are, and not the worst, who seek no other profit than to look at the show and see how and why everything is done; spectators of the life of other people in order to judge and regulate their own.
There is not much less vexation in the government of a private family than in the managing of an entire state.
Those who have compared our life to a dream were right... we were sleeping wake, and waking sleep.
Such as are in immediate fear of a losing their estates, of banishment, or of slavery, live in perpetual anguish, and lose all appetite and repose; whereas such as are actually poor, slaves, or exiles, ofttimes live as merrily as other folk.
It is not by great acts but by small failures that freedom dies. . . . Justice and liberty die quietly, because men first learn to ignore injustice and then no longer recognize it.
Those who look for the laws of Nature as a support for their new works collaborate with the creator.
Mind precedes all phenomena, mind matters most, everything is mind-made. If with an impure mind, you speak or act, then suffering follows you as the cartwheel follows the foot of the draft animal. If with a pure mind, you speak or act, then happiness follows you as a shadow that never departs
One thing only do I know for certain and that is that man's judgments of value follow directly his wishes for happiness-that, accordingly, they are an attempt to support his illusions with arguments. [p.111]
All those evil doctrines about God that work misery and madness have their origin in the brains of the wise and prudent, not in the hearts of children.
Doubt is part of all religion. All the religious thinkers were doubters.
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