All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.
Michel De MontaigneRead
How many condemnations I have witnessed more criminal than the crime!
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that judging others can sometimes be more unjust than the actions being judged.
Michel De Montaigne reflects on the idea that the act of condemning others can often be more harmful and unjust than the actual wrongdoing itself. This points to the moral complexities of judgment, suggesting that society often rushes to condemn without understanding the full context, thereby perpetrating a greater injustice in the process.
Themes
JudgmentCondemnationCrimeMoralityJustice
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate about justice and morality, this quote can serve as a reminder to consider the impact of judgment.
More from Michel De Montaigne
All quotes βAll 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.
Michel De MontaigneRead
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.
Michel De MontaigneRead
There is not much less vexation in the government of a private family than in the managing of an entire state.
Michel De MontaigneRead
Those who have compared our life to a dream were right... we were sleeping wake, and waking sleep.
Michel De MontaigneRead
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.
Michel De MontaigneRead
Similar quotes
An open mind, in questions that are not ultimate, is useful. But an open mind about the ultimate foundations either of Theoretical or of Practical Reason is idiocy. If a man's mind is open on these things, let his mouth at least be shut. He can say nothing to the purpose. Outside the Tao there is no ground for criticizing either the Tao or anything else.
C. S. LewisRead
I've always been keenly aware of the passing of time. I've always thought that I was old. Even when I was twelve, I thought it was awful to be thirty. I felt that something was lost. At the same time, I was aware of what I could gain, and certain periods of my life have taught me a great deal. But, in spite of everything, I've always been haunted by the passing of time and by the fact that death keeps closing in on us.
Simone De BeauvoirRead
Away with the cant of 'Measures not men!'-the idle supposition that it is the harness and not the horses that draw the chariot along.
George CanningRead
Nothing is easier than to admit in words the truth of the universal struggle for life, or more difficult - at least I have found it so - than constantly to bear this conclusion in mind...We behold the face of nature bright with gladness...We do not see, or we forget, that the birds which are idly singing round us mostly live on insects and seeds, and are thus constantly destroying life.
Charles DarwinRead
Whether we're Democrats or Republicans or independents, we have to learn to hang together or we're gonna hang separately.
Parker PalmerRead
Slowly the poison the whole blood stream fills. It is not the effort nor the failure tires. The waste remains, the waste remains and kills.
William EmpsonRead