Michel de Montaigne Inspirational Quotations

Ambition is not a vice of little people.

My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened.

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

There is no pleasure to me without communication: there is not so much as a sprightly thought comes into my mind that it does not grieve me to have produced alone, and that I have no one to tell it to.

How many condemnations I have witnessed more criminal than the crime!

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.

There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.

How many things we held yesterday as articles of faith which today we tell as fables.

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.

A strong imagination begetteth opportunity.

Learned we may be with another man's learning: we can only be wise with wisdom of our own.

The lack of wealth is easily repaired but the poverty of the soul is irreplaceable.

A man must learn to endure patiently what he cannot avoid conveniently.

Children's games are hardly games. Children are never more serious than when they play.

The thing I fear most is fear.

I have gathered a posy of other men’s flowers and only the thread that bonds them is my own.

The great and glorious masterpiece of humanity is to know how to live with a purpose.

No wind favors he who has no destined port.