All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.
Michel De MontaigneRead
It is not reasonable that art should win the place of honor over our great and powerful mother Nature. We have so overloaded the beauty and richness of her works by our inventions that we have quite smothered her.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the superiority of nature over man's artistic creations.
Montaigne argues that while human art is valuable, it should not overshadow the grandeur and beauty of nature. He suggests that our inventions and creations have, in fact, diminished the appreciation of the natural world, which is often more magnificent than our own artistic endeavors.
Themes
NatureArtBeautyCreativityInvention
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a speech about the importance of environmental conservation.
More from Michel De Montaigne
All quotes →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.
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
I don't believe in competitions between artists. This is insane. Who has the authority to say someone is better?
Alan ArkinRead
A true diva is graceful, and talented, and strong, and fearless and brave and someone with humility.
Beyonce KnowlesRead
Photography, sculpture, and painting were wielded as cultural weapons over the course of generations to substantiate the idea that black people were inherently subordinate beings; they were used to make slavery acceptable and to make black subjugation more palatable.
Clint SmithRead
The art of stone in a Japanese garden is that of placement. Its ideal does not deviate from that of nature.
Isamu NoguchiRead
God does not ask for 'religious' art or 'Catholic' art. The art he wants for himself is Art, with all its teeth
Jacques MaritainRead
Every time you do something, people are going to like it, people are going to hate it. You tend to make the movies on the basis you are making them for the people who are going to like them and not worrying too much about people who don't like them.
Peter JacksonRead