No man is so exquisitely honest or upright in living but that ten times in his life he might not lawfully be hanged.
¶ (Attributed)
Quotations by ...
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Don't discuss yourself, for you are bound to lose; if you belittle yourself, you are believed; if you praise yourself, you are disbelieved.
¶ (Attributed)
There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees.
¶ (Attributed)
Necessity is a violent school-mistress and teacheth strange lessons.
¶ (Attributed)
Hath God obliged himself not to exceed the bounds of our knowledge?
¶ (Attributed)
Whosoever lies shows that he despises God and fears men.
¶ (Attributed)
Confidence in others' honesty is no light testimony of one's own integrity.
¶ (Attributed)
Nothing is as firmly held as what man knows least.
¶ (Attributed)
If you don't know how to die, don't worry; Nature will tell you what to do on the spot, fully and adequately. She will do this job perfectly for you; don't bother your head about it.
¶ (Attributed)
He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak.
¶ (Attributed)
There never were in the world two opinions alike, no more than two hairs or two grains; the most universal quality is diversity.
¶ (Attributed)
No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately.
¶ (Attributed)
I, who am a very earthy person, loathe that inhuman teaching which would make us despise and dislike the care of the body. I consider it just as wrong to reject natural pleasures as to set too much store by them.
¶ Essays
Et au plus eslevé throne du monde, si ne sommes assis que sus nôstre cul.
[Even on the most exalted throne in the world we are only sitting on our own bottom.]
¶ Essays (1580)
Trans. Jacob Zeitlin, vol. 3, p.317 (1936)
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