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We Have More Poets Than Judges And Interpreters Of Poetry. It Is Easier To Write An Indifferent Poem Than To Understand A Good One. There Is, Indeed, A Certain Low And Moderate Sort Of Poetry, That A Man May Well Enough Judge By Certain Rules Of Art; But The True, Supreme, And Divine Poesy Is Equally Above All Rules And Reason. And Whoever Discerns The Beauty Of It With The Most Assured And Most Steady Sight Sees No More Than The Quick Reflection Of A Flash Of Lightning.

-Michel De Montaigne

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We Have More Poets

Michel De Montaigne

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We Have More Poets Than Judges And Interpreters Of Poetry. It Is Easier To Write An Indifferent Poem Than To Understand A Good One. There Is, Indeed, A Certain Low And Moderate Sort Of Poetry, That A Man May Well Enough Judge By Certain Rules Of Art; But The True, Supreme, And Divine Poesy Is Equally Above All Rules And Reason. And Whoever Discerns The Beauty Of It With The Most Assured And Most Steady Sight Sees No More Than The Quick Reflection Of A Flash Of Lightning.

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It Is Easier To Write An Indifferent Poem Than To Understand A Good One.

Teach Him A Certain Refinement In Sorting Out And Selecting His Arguments, With An Affection For Relevance And So For Brevity. Above All Let Him Be Taught To Throw Down His Arms And Surrender To Truth As Soon As He Perceives It, Whether The Truth Is Born At His Rival's Doing Or Within Himself From Some Change In His Ideas.

Words Of Wisdom

The Man Who Thinks He Knows Does Not Yet Know What Knowing Is

Other Passions Have Objects To Flatter Them, And Seem To Content And Satisfy Them For A While; There Is Power In Ambition, Pleasure In Luxury, And Pelf In Covetousness; But Envy Can Gain Nothing But Vexation.

We Cannot Fail In Following Nature.

It Is A Human Tendency "to Measure Truth And Error By Our Capacity."

The Great And Glorious Masterpiece Of Men Is To Live To The Point. All Other Things-to Reign, To Hoard, To Build-are, At Most, But Inconsiderable Props And Appendages.

In Love, 'tis No Other Than Frantic Desire For That Which Flies From Us.

All The Opinions In The World Point Out That Pleasure Is Our Aim.

Necessity Is A Violent School-mistress.

There Is More Ado To Interpret Interpretations Than To Interpret Things, And More Books Upon Books Than Upon Any Other Subject; We Do Nothing But Comment Upon One Another. Every Place Swarms With Commentaries; Of Authors There Is Great Scarcity.

There Are As Many And Innumerable Degrees Of Wit, As There Are Cubits Between This And Heaven.

A Man Must Live In The World And Make The Best Of It, Such As It Is.

It Is In The Enjoyment And Not In Mere Possession That Makes For Happiness.

Is It Not Enough To Make Me Come Back To Life Out Of Spite, To Have Someone Who Spat In My Face While I Existed Come And Rub My Feet When I Am Beginning To Exist No Longer?

The Human Face Is A Weak Guarantee; Yet It Deserves Some Consideration. And If I Had To Whip The Wicked, I Would Do So More Severely To Those Who Belied And Betrayed The Promises That Nature Had Implanted On Their Brows; I Would Punish Malice More Harshly When It Was Hidden Under A Kindly Appearance.

As For Me, Then, I Love Life And Cultivate It Just As God Has Been Pleased To Grant It To Us.

Like The Watermen Who Advance Forward While They Look Backward.

As By Some Might Be Saide Of Me: That Here I Have But Gathered A Nosegay Of Strange Floures, And Have Put Nothing Of Mine Unto It, But The Thred To Binde Them. Certes, I Have Given Unto Publike Opinion, That These Borrowed Ornaments Accompany Me; But I Meane Not They Should Cover Or Hide Me.

Authors Communicate With The People By Some Special Extrinsic Mark; I Am The First To Do So By My Entire Being, As Michel De Montaigne.

It Is Good To Rub And Polish Our Brain Against That Of Others.

Books Are A Languid Pleasure.

Whatever Is Enforced By Command Is More Imputed To Him Who Exacts Than To Him Who Performs.

There Is Some Shadow Of Delight And Delicacy Which Smiles Upon And Flatters Us Even In The Very Lap Of Melancholy.

There Are Few Things On Which We Can Pass A Sincere Judgement, Because There Are Few Things In Which We Have Not, In One Way Or Another, A Particular Interest.

T Is One And The Same Nature That Rolls On Her Course, And Whoever Has Sufficiently Considered The Present State Of Things Might Certainly Conclude As To Both The Future And The Past.

Let Us A Little Permit Nature To Take Her Own Way; She Better Understands Her Own Affairs Than We.

If There Is Such A Thing As A Good Marriage, It Is Because It Resembles Friendship Rather Than Love.

To Make A Crooked Stick Straight, We Bend It The Contrary Way.

Examples Teach Us That In Military Affairs, And All Others Of A Like Nature, Study Is Apt To Enervate And Relax The Courage Of Man, Rather Than To Give Strength And Energy To The Mind.

The Laws Keep Up Their Credit, Not By Being Just, But Because They Are Laws; 'tis The Mystic Foundation Of Their Authority; They Have No Other, And It Well Answers Their Purpose. They Are Often Made By Fools; Still Oftener By Men Who, Out Of Hatred To Equality, Fail In Equity; But Always By Men, Vain And Irresolute Authors.

I Never Met A Man Who Thought His Thinking Was Faulty.

I Have Seen Books Made Of Things Neither Studied Nor Ever Understood ... The Author Contenting Himself For His Own Part, To Have Cast The Plot And Projected The Design Of It, And By His Industry To Have Bound Up The Fagot Of Unknown Provisions; At Least The Ink And Paper His Own. This May Be Said To Be A Buying Or Borrowing, And Not A Making Or Compiling Of A Book.

Peoples Nurtured On Freedom And Self-government Judge Any Other Form Of Polity To Be Deformed And Unnatural. Those Who Are Used To Monarchy Do The Same .

Every Man Carries The Entire Form Of Human Condition.

Human Condition

The Continuous Work Of Our Life Is To Build Death.

Obstinacy And Heat In Argument Are Surest Proofs Of Folly. Is There Anything So Stubborn, Obstinate, Disdainful, Contemplative, Grave, Or Serious, As An Ass?

The Worth Of The Mind Consisteth Not In Going High, But In Marching Orderly.

A Man Must Always Study, But He Must Not Always Go To School: What A Contemptible Thing Is An Old Abecedarian!

One Open Way Of Speaking Introduces Another Open Way Of Speaking, And Draws Out Discoveries, Like Wine And Love.

We Should Spread Joy, But, As Far As We Can, Repress Sorrow.

There Is Nothing Useless In Nature; Not Even Uselessness Itself

There Is A Huge Gulf Between The Man Who Follows The Conventions And Laws Of His Country And The Man Who Sets Out To Regiment Them And To Change Them.

I Set Forth A Humble And Inglorious Life; That Does Not Matter. You Can Tie Up All Moral Philosophy With A Common And Private Life Just As Well As With A Life Of Richer Stuff. Each Man Bears The Entire Form Of Man's Estate.

We Are Nearer Neighbors To Ourselves Than The Whiteness Of Snow Or The Weight Of Stones Are To Us: If Man Does Not Know Himself, How Should He Know His Functions And Powers?

To Divert Myself From A Troublesome Fancy, It Is But To Run To My Books; They Presently Fix Me To Them, And Drive The Other Out Of My Thoughts, And Do Not Mutiny To See That I Have Only Recourse To Them For Want Of Other More, Real, Natural, And Lively Conveniences; They Always Receive Me With The Same Kindness.

Wonder Is The Foundation Of All Philosophy, Inquiry The Progress, Ignorance The End.

We May So Seize On Virtue, That If We Embrace It With An Overgreedy And Violent Desire, It May Become Vicious.

There Are Truths On This Side Of The Pyrenees Which Are Falsehoods On The Other

Things Are Not Bad In Themselves, But Our Cowardice Makes Them So.

When All Is Summed Up, A Man Never Speaks Of Himself Without Loss; His Accusations Of Himself Are Always Believed; His Praises Never.

Lost Friendship

We Are Born To Inquire After Truth; It Belongs To A Greater Power To Possess It. It Is Not, As Democritus Said, Hid In The Bottom Of The Deeps, But Rather Elevated To An Infinite Height In The Divine Knowledge.

The World Is All A Carcass And Vanity, The Shadow Of A Shadow, A Play And In One Word, Just Nothing.

My Art And Profession Is To Live.

We Are All Of Us Richer Than We Think We Are; But We Are Taught To Borrow And To Beg, And Brought Up More To Make Use Of What Is Another's Than Of Our Own.

Friendship Is A Creature Formed For A Companionship Not For A Herd.

Whoever Will Be Cured Of Ignorance, Let Him Confess It.

I Had Rather Complain Of Ill-fortune Than Be Ashamed Of Victory.

The Diversity Of Physical Arguments And Opinions Embraces All Sorts Of Methods.

All Permanent Decisions Are Made In A Temporary State Of Mind.

This Idea Is More Surely Understood By Interrogation; What Do I Know? Which I Bear As My Motto With The Emblem Of A Pair Of Scales.

God Defend Me From Myself.

He That Had Never Seen A River Imagined The First He Met To Be The Sea; And The Greatest Things That Have Fallen Within Our Knowledge We Conclude The Extremes That Nature Makes Of The Kind.

When I Play With My Cat, Who Knows Whether I Do Not Make Her More Sport Than She Makes Me?

For There Is No Air That Men So Greedily Draw In, That Diffuses Itself So Soon, And That Penetrates So Deep As That Of License.

Man Will Rise, If God By Exception Lends Him A Hand; He Will Rise By Abandoning And Renouncing His Own Means, And Letting Himselfbe Raised And Uplifted By Purely Celestial Means.

The Desire For Riches Is More Sharpened By Their Use Than By Their Need. Pleasing All: A Mark That Can Never Be Aimed At Or Hit.

It Was Truly Very Good Reason That We Should Be Beholden To God Only, And To The Favour Of His Grace, For The Truth Of So Noble A Belief, Since From His Sole Bounty We Receive The Fruit Of Immortality, Which Consists In The Enjoyment Of Eternal Beatitude.... The More We Give And Confess To Owe And Render To God, We Do It With The Greater Christianity.

As For Our Pupils Talk, Let His Virtue And His Sense Of Right And Wrong Shine Through It And Have No Guide But Reason. Make Him Understand That Confessing An Error Which He Discovers In His Own Argument Even When He Alone Has Noticed It Is An Act Of Justice And Integrity, Which Are The Main Qualities He Pursues; Stubbornness And Rancour Are Vulgar Qualities, Visible In Common Souls Whereas To Think Again, To Change One's Mind And To Give Up A Bad Case On The Heat Of The Argument Are Rare Qualities Showing Strength And Wisdom.

No Wind Serves Him Who Addresses His Voyage To No Certain Port.

It Needs Courage To Be Afraid.

An Orator Of Past Times Declared That His Calling Was To Make Small Things Appear To Be Grand.

Oh, What A Valiant Faculty Is Hope, That In A Mortal Subject, And In A Moment, Makes Nothing Of Usurping Infinity, Immensity, Eternity, And Of Supplying Its Masters Indigence, At Its Pleasure, With All Things He Can Imagine Or Desire!

Human Wisdom Makes As Ill Use Of Her Talent When She Exercises It In Rescinding From The Number And Sweetness Of Those Pleasures That Are Naturally Our Due, As She Employs It Favorably And Well In Artificially Disguising And Tricking Out The Ills Of Life To Alleviate The Sense Of Them.

The Oldest And Best Known Evil Was Ever More Supportable Than One That Was New And Untried.

The Utility Of Living Consists Not In The Length Of Days, But In The Use Of Time; A Man May Have Lived Long, And Yet Lived But A Little.

A Straight Oar Looks Bent In The Water. It Matters Not Merely That We See A Thing, But How We See It.

Words Repeated Again Have As Another Sound, So Another Sense.

Love To His Soul Gave Eyes; He Knew Things Are Not As They Seem. The Dream Is His Real Life; The World Around Him Is The Dream.

All The Fame You Should Look For In Life Is To Have Lived It Quietly.

There Is No Passion So Much Transports The Sincerity Of Judgment As Doth Anger

Who Is Only Good That Others May Know It, And That He May Be The Better Esteemed When 'tis Known, Who Will Do Well But Upon Condition That His Virtue May Be Known To Men, Is One From Whom Much Service Is Not To Be Expected.

We Are Nearer Neighbours To Ourselves Than Whiteness To Snow, Or Weight To Stones.

There Is No Man So Good, Who, Were He To Submit All His Thoughts And Actions To The Laws, Would Not Deserve Hanging Ten Times In His Life.

Example Is A Bright Looking-glass, Universal And For All Shapes To Look Into.

Knowledge Is An Excellent Drug; But No Drug Has Virtue Enough To Preserve Itself From Corruption And Decay, If The Vessel Be Tainted And Impure Wherein It Is Put To Keep.

Is There A Polity Better Ordered, The Offices Better Distributed, And More Inviolably Observed And Maintained, Than That Of Bees?

We Are Christians By The Same Title As We Are Natives Of Perigord Or Germany.

What Enriches Language Is Its Being Handled And Exploited By Beautiful Minds-not So Much By Making Innovations As By Expanding It Through More Vigorous And Varied Applications, By Extending It And Deploying It. It Is Not Words That They Contribute: What They Do Is Enrich Their Words, Deepen Their Meanings And Tie Down Their Usage; They Teach It Unaccustomed Rhythms, Prudently Though And With Ingenuity.

A Strong Memory Is Commonly Coupled With Infirm Judgment.

Most Of Our Occupations Are Low Comedy.... We Must Play Our Part Duly, But As The Part Of A Borrowed Character. Of The Mask And Appearance We Must Not Make A Real Essence, Nor Of What Is Foreign What Is Our Very Own.

There Is Nothing Of Evil In Life For Him Who Rightly Comprehends That Death Is No Evil; To Know How To Die Delivers Us From All Subjection And Constraint.

The Concern That Some Women Show At The Absence Of Their Husbands, Does Not Arise From Their Not Seeing Them And Being With Them, But From Their Apprehension That Their Husbands Are Enjoying Pleasures In Which They Do Not Participate, And Which, From Their Being At A Distance, They Have Not The Power Of Interrupting.

The Thing I Fear Most Is Fear.

It Is Not A Mind, It Is Not A Body That We Educate, But It Is A Man, And We Must Not Make Two Parts Of Him.

There Are No Truths, Only Moments Of Claryty Passing For Answers.

We Seem Ambitious God's Whole Work To Undo. ...with New Diseases On Ourselves We War, And With New Physic, A Worse Engine Far.

Wonder Is The Foundation Of All Philosophy; Research, The Progress; Ignorance, The End. There Is, By Heavens, A Strong And Generous Kind Of Ignorance That Yields Nothing, For Honour And Courage, To Knowledge: An Ignorance To Conceive Which Needs No Less Knowledge Than To Conceive Knowledge.

Princes Give Mee Sufficiently, If They Take Nothing From Me, And Doe Me Much Good, If They Doe Me No Hurt: It Is All I Require Of Them.

It Is Setting A High Value Upon Our Opinions To Roast Men And Women Alive On Account Of Them.

I See This Evident, That We Willingly Accord To Piety Only The Services That Flatter Our Passions.

Obstinacy And Dogmatism Are The Surest Signs Of Stupidity. Is There Anything More Confident, Resolute, Disdainful, Grave And Serious Than An Ass?

Valor Is Strength, Not Of Legs And Arms, But Of Heart And Soul; It Consists Not In The Worth Of Our Horse Or Our Weapons, But In Our Own.

Time Steals Away Without Any Inconvenience.

Human Understanding Is Marvellously Enlightened By Daily Conversation With Men, For We Are, Otherwise, Compressed And Heaped Up In Ourselves, And Have Our Sight Limited To The Length Of Our Own Noses.

A Well-bred Man Is Always Sociable And Complaisant.

The Memory Represents To Us Not What We Choose But What It Pleases.

A Lady Could Not Boast Of Her Chastity Who Was Never Tempted.

After A Tongue Has Once Got The Knack Of Lying, It Is Not To Be Imagined How Impossible Almost It Is To Reclaim It. Whence It Comes To Pass, That We See Some Men, Who Are Otherwise Very Honest, So Subject To This Vice.

Ambition Is Not A Vice Of Little People.

I Am Afraid That Our Eyes Are Bigger Than Our Stomachs, And That We Have More Curiosity Than Understanding. We Grasp At Everything, But Catch Nothing Except Wind.

Fame And Tranquility Can Never Be Bedfellows.

I Speak To The Paper, As I Speak To The First Person I Meet.

A Wise Man Never Loses Anything, If He Has Himself.

Experience Teaches That A Strong Memory Is Generally Joined To A Weak Judgment.

Amongst So Many Borrowed Things, Am Glad If I Can Steal One, Disguising And Altering It For Some New Service.

Marriage Has, For Its Share, Usefulness, Justice, Honour, And Constancy; A Stale But More Durable Pleasure. Love Is Grounded On Pleasure Alone, And It Is Indeed More Gratifying To The Senses, Keener And More Acute; A Pleasure Stirred And Kept Alive By Difficulties. There Must Be A Sting And A Smart In It. It Ceases To Be Love If It Has No Shafts And No Fire.

I Do Not Teach. I Relate.

Meditation Is A Rich And Powerful Method Of Study For Anyone Who Knows How To Examine His Mind.

Just As In Habiliments It Is A Sign Of Weakness To Wish To Make Oneself Noticeable By Some Peculiar And Unaccustomed Fashion, So, In Language, The Quest For New-fangled Phrases And Little-known Words Comes From A Puerile And Pedantic Ambition.

The Way Of The World Is To Make Laws, But Follow Custom.

A Man Should Think Less Of What He Eats And More With Whom He Eats Because No Food Is So Satisfying As Good Company.

A Wise Man Loses Nothing, If He But Save Himself.

Our Zeal Works Wonders, Whenever It Supports Our Inclination Toward Hatred, Cruelty, Ambition.

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.

There Is A Plague On Man, The Opinion That He Knows Something.

No-one Is Exempt From Speaking Nonsense – The Only Misfortune Is To Do It Solemnly.

I Do Not Believe, From What I Have Been Told About This People, That There Is Anything Barbarous Or Savage About Them, Except That We All Call Barbarous Anything That Is Contrary To Our Own Habits.

We Must Learn To Endure What We Cannot Avoid. Our Life Is Composed, Like The Harmony Of The World, Of Contrary Things, Also Of Different Tones, Sweet And Harsh, Sharp And Flat, Soft And Loud. If A Musician Liked Only One Kind, What Would He Have To Say?

Fortune, To Show Us Her Power In All Things, And To Abate Our Presumption, Seeing She Could Not Make Fools Wise, Has Made Them Fortunate.

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.

An Ancient Father Says That A Dog We Know Is Better Company Than A Man Whose Language We Do Not Understand.

I Would Like To Suggest That Our Minds Are Swamped By Too Much Study And By Too Much Matter Just As Plants Are Swamped By Too Much Water Or Lamps By Too Much Oil; That Our Minds, Held Fast And Encumbered By So Many Diverse Preoccupations, May Well Lose The Means Of Struggling Free, Remaining Bowed And Bent Under The Load; Except That It Is Quite Otherwise: The More Our Souls Are Filled, The More They Expand; Examples Drawn From Far-off Times Show, On The Contrary, That Great Soldiers Ad Statesmen Were Also Great Scholars.

There Is, Nevertheless, A Certain Respect And A General Duty Of Humanity That Ties Us, Not Only To Beasts That Have Life And Sense, But Even To Trees And Plants.

How Many Quarrels, And How Important, Has The Doubt As To The Meaning Of This Syllable "hoc" Produced For The World!

Men Are Nothing Until They Are Excited.

One May Be Humble Out Of Pride.

Nothing Prints More Lively In Our Minds Than Something We Wish To Forget.

The Most Certain Sign Of Wisdom Is Cheerfulness.

It Has Never Occurred To Me To Wish For Empire Or Royalty, Nor For The Eminence Of Those High And Commanding Fortunes. My Aim Lies Not In That Direction; I Love Myself Too Well.

Is It Not A Noble Farce, Wherein Kings, Republics, And Emperors Have For So Many Ages Played Their Parts, And To Which The Whole Vast Universe Serves For A Theatre?

Those That Will Combat Use And Custom By The Strict Rules Of Grammar Do But Jest

Nothing Else But An Insatiate Thirst Of Enjoying A Greedily Desired Object.

Seneca's Virtue Shows Forth So Live And Vigorous In His Writings, And The Defense Is So Clear There Against Some Of These Imputations, As That Of His Wealth And Excessive Spending, That I Would Not Believe Any Testimony To The Contrary.

Is It Reasonable That Even The Arts Should Take Advantage Of And Profit By Our Natural Stupidity And Feebleness Of Mind?

Men Are Tormented By The Opinions They Have Of Things, And Not The Things Themselves.

An Untempted Woman Cannot Boast Of Her Chastity.

It Is Equally Pointless To Weep Because We Won't Be Alive A Hundred Years From Now As That We Were Not Here A Hundred Years Ago.

No Man Dies Before His Hour. The Time You Leave Behind Was No More Yours, Than That Which Was Before Your Birth, And Concerneth You No More.

I May Indeed Very Well Happen To Contradict Myself; But Truth, As Demades Said, I Do Not Contradict.

In My Youth I Studied For Ostentation; Later, A Little To Gain Wisdom; Now, For Recreation; Never For Gain.

Seeing That The Senses Cannot Decide Our Dispute, Being Themselves Full Of Uncertainty, We Must Have Recourse To Reason; There Is No Reason But Must Be Built Upon Another Reason: So Here We Are Retreating Backwards To Infinity.

Who So Hath His Mind On Taking, Hath It No More On What He Taketh.

Oh Senseless Man, Who Cannot Possibly Make A Worm Or A Flea And Yet Will Create Gods By The Dozen!

I Must Accommodate My History To The Hour: I May Presently Change, Not Only By Fortune, But Also By Intention.

The Most Useful And Honorable Science And Occupation For A Woman Is The Science Of Housekeeping. I Know Some That Are Miserly, Very Few That Are Good Managers.

If Health And A Fair Day Smile Upon Me, I Am A Very Good Fellow; If A Corn Trouble My Toe, I Am Sullen, Out Of Humor, And Inaccessible.

Rejoice In The Things That Are Present; All Else Is Beyond Thee.

Live In The Moment

Past Present Future

Happiness Involves Working Toward Meaningful Goals.

The Common Notions That We Find In Credit Around Us And Infused Into Our Souls By Our Fathers' Seed, These Seem To Be The Universal And Natural Ones. Whence It Comes To Pass That What Is Off The Hinges Of Custom, People Believe To Be Off The Hinges Of Reason.

Nobody Is Exempt From Saying Stupid Things, The Harm Is To Do It Presumptuously.

I Enjoy Books As Misers Enjoy Treasures, Because I Know I Can Enjoy Them Whenever I Please.

True It Is That She Who Escapeth Safe And Unpolluted From Out The School Of Freedom, Giveth More Confidence Of Herself Than She Who Comet Sound Out Of The School Of Severity And Restraint.

Self Confidence

Indeed, There Is No Such Thing As An Altogether Ugly Woman — Or Altogether Beautiful.

The Souls Of Emperors And Cobblers Are Cast In The Same Mould

Meditation Is A Powerful And Full Study As Can Effectually Taste And Employ Themselves.

No Wind Favors He Who Has No Destined Port.

Lay A Beam Between These Two Towers Of Such Width As We Need To Walk On: There Is No Philosophical Wisdom Of Such Great Firmness That It Can Give Us Courage To Walk On It As We Should If It Were On The Ground.

The First Distinction Among Men, And The First Consideration That Gave One Precedence Over Another, Was Doubtless The Advantage Of Beauty.

It Is A Small Soul, Buried Beneath The Weight Of Affairs, That Does Not Know How To Get Clean Away From Them, That Cannot Put Them Aside And Pick Them Up Again.

Our Great And Glorious Masterpiece Is To Live Appropriately.

Some, Either From Being Glued To Vice By A Natural Attachment, Or From Long Habit, No Longer Recognize Its Ugliness.

Age Imprints More Wrinkles In The Mind Than It Does On The Face.

It Is Not Death, It Is Dying That Alarms Me.

Death And Dying

If These Essays Were Worthy Of Being Judged, It Might Fall Out, In My Opinion, That They Would Not Find Much Favour, Either With Common And Vulgar Minds, Or With Uncommon And Eminent Ones: The Former Would Not Find Enough In Them, The Latter Would Find Too Much; They Might Manage To Live Somewhere In The Middle Region.

Health Is A Precious Thing, And The Only One, In Truth, Meriting That A Man Should Lay Out Not Only His Time, Sweat, Labor And Goods, But Also Life Itself To Obtain It.

True Freedom Is To Have Power Over Oneself For Everything.

We Commend A Horse For His Strength, And Sureness Of Foot, And Not For His Rich Caparisons; A Greyhound For His Share Of Heels, Not For His Fine Collar; A Hawk For Her Wing, Not For Her Jesses And Bells. Why, In Like Manner, Do We Not Value A Man For What Is Properly His Own? He Has A Great Train, A Beautiful Palace, So Much Credit, So Many Thousand Pounds A Year, And All These Are About Him, But Not In Him.

Intoxication Is Calculated To Put Heart Into The Elderly And Give Them Delight In Dancing.

Most Men Are Rich In Borrowed Sufficiency: A Man May Very Well Say A Good Thing, Give A Good Answer, Cite A Good Sentence, Without At All Seeing The Force Of Either The One Or The Other.

Don't Discuss Yourself, For You Are Bound To Lose; If You Belittle Yourself, You Are Believed; If You Praise Yourself, You Are Disbelieved.

It Is Far More Probable That Our Senses Should Deceive Us, Than That An Old Woman Should Be Carried Up A Chimney On A Broom Stick; And That It Is Far Less Astonishing That Witnesses Should Lie, Than That Witches Should Perform The Acts That Were Alleged.

There Is Nothing Which So Poisons Princes As Flattery, Nor Anything Whereby Wicked Men More Easily Obtain Credit And Favor With Them.

The World Is But A Perennial Movement. All Things In It Are In Constant Motion-the Earth, The Rocks Of The Caucasus, The Pyramids Of Egypt-both With The Common Motion And With Their Own.

Socrates, Who Was A Perfect Model In All Great Qualities, ... Hit On A Body And Face So Ugly And So Incongruous With The Beauty Of His Soul, He Who Was So Madly In Love With Beauty.

I Have Often Seen People Uncivil By Too Much Civility, And Tiresome In Their Courtesy.

Reason Has So Many Forms That We Do Not Know Which To Choose-experiment Has No Fewer.

No One Should Be Subjected To Force Over Things Which Belonged To Him.

Physicians Have This Advantage: The Sun Lights Their Success And The Earth Covers Their Failures.

We Endeavor More That Men Should Speak Of Us, Than How And What They Speak, And It Sufficeth Us That Our Name Run In Men's Mouths, In What Manner Soever. It Stemma That To Be Known Is In Some Sort To Have Life And Continuance In Other Men's Keeping.

Glory And Repose Are Things That Cannot Possibly Inhabit In One And The Same Place.

A Strong Imagination Begetteth Opportunity.

Tis So Much To Be A King, That He Only Is So By Being So.

The Bees Pillage The Flowers Here And There But They Make Honey Of Them Which Is All Their Own; It Is No Longer Thyme Or Marjolaine: So The Pieces Borrowed From Others He Will Transform And Mix Up Into A Work All His Own.

Truly Man Is A Marvelously Vain, Diverse, And Undulating Object. It Is Hard To Found Any Constant And Uniform Judgment On Him.

Once Conform, Once Do What Others Do Because They Do It, And A Kind Of Lethargy Steals Over All The Finer Senses Of The Soul.

There Is Power In Ambition, Pleasure In Luxury...but Envy Can Gain Nothing But Vexation.

Vexations May Be Petty, But They Are Vexations Still.

You Have Your Face Bare; I Am All Face.

Every Abridgement Of A Good Book Is A Fool Abridged.

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