Michel de Montaigne Quotes

The most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness.

If there is such a thing as a good marriage, it is because it resembles friendship rather than love.

I care not so much what I am to others as what I am to myself. I will be rich by myself, and not by borrowing.

We are, I know not how, double in ourselves, so that what we believe we disbelieve, and cannot rid ourselves of what we condemn.

[I]n my country, when they would say a man has no sense, they say, such an one has no memory; and when I complain of the defect of mine, they do not believe me, and reprove me, as though I accused myself for a fool: not discerning the difference betwixt memory and understanding, which is to make matters still worse for me. But they do me wrong; for experience, rather, daily shows us, on the contrary, that a strong memory is commonly coupled with infirm judgment.

As for extraordinary things, all the provision in the world would not suffice.

In my opinion, every rich man is a miser.

How many we know who have fled the sweetness of a tranquil life in their homes, among the friends, to seek the horror of uninhabitable deserts; who have flung themselves into humiliation, degradation, and the contempt of the world, and have enjoyed these and even sought them out.

Things are not bad in themselves, but our cowardice makes them so.