Michel de Montaigne

“Certes, c'est un subject merveilleusement vain, divers, et ondoyant, que l'homme. Il est malaisé d'y fonder jugement constant et uniforme.”

“All passions that suffer themselves to be relished and digested are but moderate.”

“A strong memory is commonly coupled with infirm judgment.”

“It is not without good reason said, that he who has not a good memory should never take upon him the trade of lying.”

“I live from day to day, and content myself with having enough to meet my present and ordinary needs; for the extraordinary, all the provision in the world could not suffice.”

“Every rich man is avaricious, in my opinion.”

“How many we know who have fled the sweetness of a tranquil life in their homes, among their 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 so painful and difficult of themselves, but our weakness or cowardice makes them so.”

“We are, I know not how, double in ourselves, which is the cause that what we believe we do not believe, and cannot disengage ourselves from what we condemn.”

“C'est ce de quoi j'ai le plus de peur que la peur.”

“He who should teach men to die would at the same time teach them to live.”

“Je veux qu'on me voit en ma façon simple, naturelle, et ordinaire, sans étude et artifice; car c'est moi que je peins...Je suis moi-même la matière de mon livre.”