Michel de Montaigne

I write to keep from going mad from the contradictions I find among mankind - and to work some of those contradictions out for myself.

The most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness.

I put forward formless and unresolved notions, as do those who publish doubtful questions to debate in the schools, not to establish the truth but to seek it.

I speak the truth not so much as I would, but as much as I dare, and I dare a little more as I grow older.

It is a sign of contraction of the mind when it is content, or of weariness. A spirited mind never stops within itself it is always aspiring and going beyond its strength.

For truly it is to be noted, that children's plays are not sports, and should be deemed as their most serious actions.

Covetousness is both the beginning and the end of the devil's alphabet - the first vice in corrupt nature that moves, and the last which dies.

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.

Marriage, a market which has nothing free but the entrance.

Marriage is like a cage one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside equally desperate to get out.

If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I was I.

The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them... Whether you find satisfaction in life depends not on your tale of years, but on your will.

Even from their infancy we frame them to the sports of love: their instruction, behavior, attire, grace, learning and all their words azimuth only at love, respects only affection. Their nurses and their keepers imprint no other thing in them.

There is no desire more natural than the desire for knowledge.

We can be knowledgable with other men's knowledge but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom.

It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others.

A good marriage would be between a blind wife and a deaf husband.

The confidence in another man's virtue is no light evidence of a man's own, and God willingly favors such a confidence.

Every one rushes elsewhere and into the future, because no one wants to face one's own inner self.

If there is such a thing as a good marriage, it is because it resembles friendship rather than love.