All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.
Michel De MontaigneRead
In my opinion, the most fruitful and natural play of the mind is conversation. I find it sweeter than any other action in life; and if I were forced to choose, I think I would rather lose my sight than my hearing and voice. The study of books is a drowsy and feeble exercise which does not warm you up.
Interpretation
Conversation is a vital and enriching part of life, more valuable than reading.
In this quote, Michel De Montaigne expresses the importance of conversation as an essential and lively form of mental engagement. He suggests that the richness of human interaction through dialogue surpasses other activities, like reading, which he views as a less dynamic form of learning and connection.
In practice
During a team-building retreat, we discussed the importance of open conversation in fostering collaboration.
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.
Pleasure, so called, is the murderer of serious thought. This is the age of excessive amusement. Everybody craves for it, like a babe for its rattle!
Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.
I only have 'yes' men around me. Who needs 'no' men?
I do not know if there is a more dreadful word in the English language than that word "lost."
The Christian life is stamped by 'moral spontaneous originality,' consequently the disciple is open to the same charge that Jesus Christ was, viz., that of inconsistency. But Jesus Christ was always consistent to God, and the Christian must be consistent to the life of the Son of God in him, not consistent to hard and fast creeds. Men pour themselves into creeds, and God has to blast them out of their prejudices before they can become devoted to Jesus Christ.
God's law is our pleasure when the God of the law is our God.
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