Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

"A wise man sees as much as he ought, not as much as he can. "

"Anyone who does not feel sufficiently strong in memory should not meddle with lying. "

"Children's playthings are not sports and should be deemed as their most serious actions. "

"Even on the most exalted throne in the world we are only sitting on our own bottom. "

"Friendship is the highest degree of perfection in society. "

"God gives us our relatives- thank God we can choose our friends. "

"He who fears he will suffer, already suffers because of his fear. "

"He who would teach men to die would at the same time teach them to live. "

"How many things which served us yesterday as articles of faith, are fables for us today. "

"I quote others only in order the better to express myself. "

"I speak the truth not so much as I would, but as much as I dare, and I dare a little more as I grow older. "

"If a man should importune me to give a reason why I loved him, I find it could no otherwise be expressed, than by making answer because it was he, because it was I. "

"It is a sign of contraction of the mind when it is content, or of weariness. "

"Man is quite insane. He wouldn't know how to create a maggot, and he creates Gods by the dozen. "

"Marriage is like a cage one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside equally desperate to get out. "

"No one is exempt from talking nonsense the mistake is to do it solemnly. "

"Once conform, once do what others do because they do it, and a kind of lethargy steals over all the finer senses of the soul. "

"Riches, like glory or heath, have no more beauty or pleasure than their possessor is pleased to lend them. "

"The finest lives, in my opinion, are those who rank in the common model, and with the human race, but without miracle, without extravagance. "

"The greatist thing in the world is for a man to know how to be himself. "

"The want of goods is easily repaired, but the poverty of the soul is irreparable. "

"There are some defeats more triumphant than victories. "

"There is no course of life so weak and sottish as that which is managed by order, method, and discipline. "

"There never were, in the world, two opinions alike, no more than two hairs, or two grains the most universal quality is diversity. "

"To philosophize is nothing else than to prepare oneself for death. "

"To philosophize is to doubt. "

"We are born to inquire into truth it belongs to a greater to possess it. "

"We can be knowledgable with other men's knowledge but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom. "