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Quote by Michel de Montaigne

“There is nothing so noble and so right as to play our human life well and fitly, nor anything so difficult to learn as how to livethis life well and according to Nature.”

Quote by Michel de Montaigne

Author

Michel de Montaigne

Michel de Montaigne was a French Renaissance philosopher, essayist, and writer. He is considered one of the most significant figures in the history of the essay. Montaigne's work, particularly his book 'Essays', has been influential in the development of modern prose. more

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“We perceive no charms that are not sharpened, puffed out, and inflated by artifice. Those which glide along naturally and simply easily escape a sight so gross as ours.”

Human Nature Sight Perceive Charm Gross Artifice

Book:The Complete Essays of Montaigne

Source: The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“Those who make a practice of comparing human actions are never so perplexed as when they try to see them as a whole and in the same light; for they commonly contradict each other so strangely that it seems impossible that they have come from the same shop.”

Trying Humans Whole Light Seems Action Practice Impossible Human Nature Diversity Compare Shops Human Actions Perplexed

Book:Complete Essays

Source: Complete Essays

“O human creature,you are the investigator without knowledge, the magistrate without jurisdiction, and all in all, the fool of the farce.”

Humans Human Nature Fool Creatures Arrogance Foolishness Magistrates Farce Investigators Jurisdiction

Author:Michel de Montaigne

“Tortures are a dangerous invention, and seem to be a test of endurance rather than of truth.”

Seems Violence Dangerous Tests Invention Torture Endurance

Book:Complete Essays

Source: Complete Essays

“Each person calls barbarism whatever is not his or her own practice.... We may call Cannibals barbarians, in respect to the rulesof reason, but not in respect to ourselves, who surpass them in every kind of barbarity.”

Kind May Persons Reason Practice Diversity Barbarians Barbarism Cannibal Cannibalism Barbarity

Author:Michel de Montaigne

“When Socrates, after being relieved of his irons, felt the relish of the itching that their weight had caused in his legs, he rejoiced to consider the close alliance between pain and pleasure.”

Pain Felt Pleasure Weight Legs Iron Alliances Relish Relieved Pain And Pleasure Ambivalence Itching

Book:Complete Essays

Source: Complete Essays

“People of our time are so formed for agitation and ostentation that goodness, moderation, equability, constancy, and such quiet and obscure qualities are no longer felt.”

People Felt Business Quality Society Quiet Goodness Corruption Our Time Obscure Moderation Constancy Agitation Ostentation

Author:Michel de Montaigne

“Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.”

“We are nothing but ceremony; ceremony carries us away, and we leave the substance of things; we hang on to the branches and abandon the trunk and body.”

Body Society Substance Branches Abandon Carrie Conventions Ceremony Trunks

Book:The Complete Works: Essays, Travel Journal, Letters

Source: The Complete Works: Essays, Travel Journal, Letters

“Whoever will imagine a perpetual confession of ignorance, a judgment without leaning or inclination, on any occasion whatever, hasa conception of Pyrrhonism.”

Imagine Ignorance Judgment Occasions Conception Perpetual Confession Skepticism Inclination

Book:Complete Essays

Source: Complete Essays