All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.
Michel De MontaigneRead
I will follow the right side even to the fire, but excluding the fire if I can.
Interpretation
Stand firm in your beliefs, even in the face of adversity, while avoiding unnecessary harm.
This quote by Michel De Montaigne emphasizes the importance of following one's principles and doing what is morally right, even when the path is fraught with challenges. It suggests that while it's commendable to stand up for what is right, one should also be wise enough to avoid unnecessary danger or harm when possible.
In practice
During a leadership seminar when discussing ethical decision-making.
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.
I'm not afraid of dying I'm afraid of not trying
Every argument for Negro suffrage is an argument for women's suffrage.
Every good citizen makes his country's honor his own, and cherishes it not only as precious but as sacred. He is willing to risk his life in its defense and its conscious that he gains protection while he gives it.
If you will protest courageously, and yet with dignity and Christian love, when the history books are written in future generations, the historians will have to pause and say, "There lived a great people-a black people-who injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization.
It is not easy to stand up against your constituents or your friends or colleagues or your community and take a tough stand for something you believe is right. Because you always want to keep working and live to fight another battle and it might cost you your career.
I should not proceed by land to the East, as is customary, but by a Westerly route, in which direction we have hitherto no certain evidence that any one has gone.
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