“If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than it was because he was he, and I was I.”
— Michel de Montaigne
“Virtue cannot be followed but for herself, and if one sometimes borrows her mask to some other purpose, she presently pulls it away again.”
— Michel de Montaigne
“The oldest and best known evil was ever more supportable than one that was new and untried.”
— Michel de Montaigne
“I quote others only in order the better to express myself.”
— Michel de Montaigne
“Miracles arise from our ignorance of nature, not from nature itself.”
— Michel de Montaigne
“Nothing prints more lively in our minds than something we wish to forget.”
— Michel de Montaigne
“Age imprints more wrinkles in the mind than it does on the face.”
— Michel de Montaigne
“He who does not live in some degree for others, hardly lives for himself.”
— Michel de Montaigne
“Speech belongs half to him who speaks and half to him who hears.”
— Michel de Montaigne