Michel de Montaigne World Quotations

I have never seen a greater monster or miracle in the world than myself.

The entire lower world was created in the likeness of the higher world. All that exists in the higher world appears like an image in this lower world; yet all this is but One.

Whenever a new discovery is reported to the world, they say first, It is probably not true, Then after, when the truth of the new proposition has been demonstrated beyond question, they say, Yes, it may be true, but it is not important. Finally, when sufficient time has elapsed to fully evidence its importance, they say, Yes, surely it is important, but it is no longer new.

How many we know who have fled the sweetness of a tranquil life in their homes, among the 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.

As for extraordinary things, all the provision in the world would not suffice.

All the opinions in the world point out that pleasure is our aim.

The thing in the world I am most afraid of is fear, and with good reason; that passion alone, in the trouble of it, exceeding all other accidents

I know that the arms of friendship are long enough to reach from the one end of the world to the other

The world is but a school of inquisition; it is not who shall enter the ring, but who shall run the best courses.

Some impose upon the world that they believe that which they do not; others, more in number, make themselves believe that they believe, not being able to penetrate into what it is to believe.

As far as fidelity is concerned, there is no animal in the world as treacherous as man.

What of a truth that is bounded by these mountains and is falsehood to the world that lives beyond?

Now, since everything else is furnished with the exact amount of needle and thread required to maintain its being, it is in truth incredible that we alone should be brought into the world in a defective and indigent state, in a state such that we cannot maintain ourselves without external aid.

The thing in the world I am most afraid of is fear.

A man must live in the world and make the best of it, such as it is.

We must learn to suffer what we cannot evade; our life, like the harmony of the world, is composed of contrary things, and one part is no less necessary than the other.

How many quarrels, and how important, has the doubt as to the meaning of this syllable "Hoc" produced for the world!

Some men seem remarkable to the world in whom neither their wives nor their valets saw anything extraordinary. Few men have been admired by their servants.

The worthiest man to be known, and for a pattern to be presented to the world, he is the man of whom we have most certain knowledge. He hath been declared and enlightened by the most clear-seeing men that ever were; the testimonies we have of him are in faithfulness and sufficiency most admirable.

There are few men who dare to publish to the world the prayers they make to Almighty God.

Why dost thou complain of this world? It detains thee not; thy own cowardice is the cause, if thou livest in pain.

The world is but a perpetual see-saw.

The world always looks straights ahead; as for me, I turn my gaze inward, I fix it there and keep it busy. Everyone looks in front of him: as for me, I look inside me: I have no business but with myself; I continually observe myself, I take stock of myself, I taste myself. Others...they always go forward; as for me, I roll about in myself.

Travelling through the world produces a marvellous clarity in the judgment of men. We are all of us confined and enclosed within ourselves, and see no farther than the end of our nose.

All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.

The greater part of the world's troubles are due to questions of grammar.

All opinions in the world agree in this, that pleasure is our end, although they differ as to the means of attaining it.

Our speech has its weaknesses and its defects, like all the rest. Most of the occasions for the troubles of the world are grammatical.

The most regular and most perfect soul in the world has but too much to do to keep itself upright from being overthrown by its own weakness.

Can anything be imagined so ridiculous that this miserable and wretched creature, who is not so much as master of himself, but subject to the injuries of all things, should call himself master and emperor of the world, of which he has not power to know the least part, much less to command the whole?

Women are not altogether in the wrong when they refuse the rules of life prescribed to the World, for men only have established them and without their consent.