Michel de Montaigne

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.

Michel de Montaigne

I speak to the paper, as I speak to the first person I meet.

Michel de Montaigne

I want death to find me planting my cabbages.

Michel de Montaigne

I want us to be doing things, prolonging life’s duties as much as we can. I want death to find me planting my cabbages, neither worrying about it nor the unfinished gardening.

Michel de Montaigne

I would rather let affairs break their neck than twist my faith for the sake of them.

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.

Michel de Montaigne

If a man urge me to tell wherefore I loved him, I feel it cannot be expressed but by answering: Because it was he, because it was myself.

Michel de Montaigne

If I am pressed to say why I loved him, I feel it can only be explained by replying: ‘Because it was he; because it was me.

Michel de Montaigne

If I had even the slightest grasp upon my own faculties, I would not make essays, I would make decisions.

Michel de Montaigne

If I speak of myself in different ways, that is because I look at myself in different ways.

Michel de Montaigne