Quotations From MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE

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• 11.

  People do not know the natural infirmity of their mind: it does nothing but ferret and quest, and keeps incessantly whirling around, building up and becoming entangled in its own work, like our silkworms, and is suffocated in it: a mouse in a pitch barrel.

  Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), French essayist. "Of Experience," The Essays (Les Essais), bk. III, ch. 13, Abel Langelier, Paris (1588).
  
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• 12.

  I consider it equal injustice to set our heart against natural pleasures and to set our heart too much on them. We should neither pursue them, nor flee them; we should accept them.

  Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), French essayist. "Of Experience," &UN:, The Essays (Les Essais), bk. III, ch. 13, Abel Langelier, Paris (1595).
  
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• 13.

  Not only does the wind of accidents stir me according to its blowing, but I am also stirred and troubled by the instability of my attitude.

  Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), French essayist. "Of The Inconsistency Of Our Actions," The Essays (Les Essais), bk. II, ch. 1, Abel Langelier, Paris (1588).
  
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• 14.

  We are all patchwork, and so shapeless and diverse in composition that each bit, each moment, plays its own game.

  Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), French essayist. "Of The Inconsistency Of Our Actions," The Essays (Les Essais), bk. II, ch. 1, Simon Millanges, Bordeaux, first edition (1580).
• 15.

  Scratching is one of nature's sweetest gratifications, and the one nearest at hand.

  Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), French essayist. "Of Experience," bk. 3, ch. 13, Essays (1588).
  
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• 16.

  The most beautiful lives, to my mind, are those that conform to the common human pattern, with order, but without miracle and without eccentricity.

  Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), French essayist. "Of Experience," The Essays (Les Essais), bk. III, ch. 13, Abel Langelier, Paris (1595).
  
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• 17.

  The true mirror of our discourse is the course of our lives.

  Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), French essayist. "Of the Education of Children," The Essays (Les Essais), bk. I, ch. 26, Abel Langelier, Paris (1595).
  
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• 18.

  Let [children] be able to do all things, and love to do only the good.

  Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), French essayist. "Of the Education of Children," The Essays (Les Essais), bk. I, ch. 26, Simon Millanges, Bordeaux, first edition (1580).
  
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• 19.

  Only the fools are certain and assured.

  Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), French essayist. "Of the Education of Children," The Essays (Les Essais), bk. I, ch. 26, Abel Langelier, Paris (1595).
• 20.

  Is it reasonable that even the arts should take advantage of and profit by our natural stupidity and feebleness of mind?

  Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), French essayist. "Of Diversion," The Essays (Les Essais), bk. III, ch. 4, Abel Langelier, Paris (1588).