All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.
Michel De MontaigneRead
The profit we possess after study is to have become better and wiser.
Interpretation
Studying enriches us by enhancing our knowledge and understanding.
This quote by Michel De Montaigne emphasizes that the true value of education lies not just in acquiring information, but in the transformation it brings to us as individuals. Through study, we gain wisdom and become more refined thinkers, ultimately leading to personal growth and better decision-making in life.
In practice
During a graduation speech to inspire students about the importance of lifelong learning.
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's funny: I always imagined when I was a kid that adults had some kind of inner toolbox full of shiny tools: the saw of discernment, the hammer of wisdom, the sandpaper of patience. But then when I grew up I found that life handed you these rusty bent old tools - friendships, prayer, conscience, honesty - and said 'do the best you can with these, they will have to do'. And mostly, against all odds, they do.
Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.
My psychoanalysis has equipped you with the equivalent of a train ticket to recovery. It is now your decision whether or not you choose to make full use of it.
The first and the best victory is to conquer self.
Forget the failures. Keep the lessons.
Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
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