Quotes from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“I quote others only in order the better to express myself.”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind.”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“If I speak of myself in different ways, that is because I look at myself in different ways.”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“Learned we may be with another man's learning: we can only be wise with wisdom of our own.”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I was I.”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“There is nothing more notable in Socrates than that he found time, when he was an old man, to learn music and dancing, and thought it time well spent.”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“I am afraid that our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, and that we have more curiosity than understanding. We grasp at everything, but catch nothing except wind.”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens.”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“Combien de choses nous servoyent hier d’articles de foy, qui nous sont fables aujourd’huy?

How many things served us yesterday for articles of faith, which today are fables for us?”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“I find I am much prouder of the victory I obtain over myself, when, in the very ardor of dispute, I make myself submit to my adversary’s force of reason, than I am pleased with the victory I obtain over him through his weakness.”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“Off I go, rummaging about in books for sayings which please me.”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“The greater part of the world's troubles are due to questions of grammar.”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“I do not believe, from what I have been told about this people, that there is anything barbarous or savage about them, except that we all call barbarous anything that is contrary to our own habits.”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“[Marriage] happens as with cages: the birds without despair to get in, and those within despair of getting out.”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“Why do people respect the package rather than the man?”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“No wind favors he who has no destined port.”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately.”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“It is a disaster that wisdom forbids you to be satisfied with yourself and always sends you away dissatisfied and fearful, whereas stubbornness and foolhardiness fill their hosts with joy and assurance.”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“Other people do not see you at all, but guess at you by uncertain conjectures.”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“The thing I fear most is fear.”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“Judgement can do without knowledge: but not knowledge without judgement.”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“The finest souls are those that have the most variety and suppleness.”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“The advantage of living is not measured by length, but by use; some men have lived long, and lived little; attend to it while you are in it. It lies in your will, not in the number of years, for you to have lived enough.”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“Every other knowledge is harmful to him who does not have knowledge of goodness.”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“Stupidity and wisdom meet in the same centre of sentiment and resolution, in the suffering of human accidents.”
― Michel de Montaigne, quote from The Complete Essays of Montaigne

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Popular quotes

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“I mistrust mountebanks—especially of the female variety.”
― Judith Merkle Riley, quote from La Jeune Fille aux Oracles

“And if we know how to light a fire, why do we carry tinder around with us?"

Because you're humans," the little one explained serenly. "You're stupid.”
― Silvana de Mari, quote from The Last Dragon

“Women of the world, our time has come!

Our leaders have taken us down a road of destruction. Aggressive, masculine reflexes have created more violence and rage, have left us with little hope for remedy in the Middle East or anywhere else. Our hope of
survival lies in honoring the feminine, that which a patriarchal society has tried vehemently to squelch.

Their legacy has left us living in a deluded universe, a world that worships a fixed and righteous view. In order to feel secure, we only welcome change that men in power determine for us. Our patriarchal religions are prime examples of this, creating a one-sided world gone from static, brittle believes.

Let us remember that patriarchy is founded on division not unity. We concentrate on the differences instead of giving importance to the similarities. There is good and bad, there is black and white. We are constantly in a state of opposites. Where does unity come into the picture?

It is no wonder women have been seen as evil, an abhorrent influence that must be destroyed. Intuition, psychic energy, spiritual force, the unknown, creation itself…merely feminine mockeries of sanity—or so it has been claimed by religious men in power. Women have died at the stake for challenging such beliefs, and to this day dogmatic religious views have persisted in undermining the feminine.

Therefore it is up to us to develop a balance between the feminine and the masculine. That’s the formula for a stable democracy. Wisdom and compassion working together will swing the pendulum away from aggression and fear toward peace and conciliation. I’ll venture to say it’s already begun. We have reached a critical mass.

Now the energy of woman is being powerfully unleashed. Negative powers have reached levels where enough of us are reacting against them to instigate change. The critical mass that we have reached cannot be turned back, and the force of it will literally shift the energy of our planet, creating a new paradigm.”
― Perri Birney, quote from Pure Vision: The Magdalene Revelation

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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.