Michel de Montaigne

"We are not so much afraid of dying as of not having lived."

"The soul's chief ailments are worry and sadness."

"I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated enough to reason incorrectly."

"Nothing is exempt from the law of change except change itself."

"Science has not succeeded in exploiting all the resources of nature."

"The greatest thing in the world is the ability to live in uncertainty."

"I hate false protestations of virtue from those who seek only praise."

"There is no kind of conduct so brave as that which is done in reserve and silence."

"We should not value things by their rarity, but by their worth."

"A man may be clever and yet foolish when he concerns himself with things outside his comprehension."

"The winds of fortune seldom blow long in one direction."

"Adversity is the trial of principle; without it a man hardly knows whether he is honest or not."

"I esteem it the chief point of wisdom to distinguish between things worthy and unworthy of our care."

"The greatest deceptions are often dressed in the clothes of virtue."

"Men are not always obliged to make use of their property as they see fit."

"True friendship is like sound health; its value is seldom known until it is lost."

"Every one calls barbarism what is not habitual to him."

"The public and the private mind are often quite distinct."

"Words and deeds are often quite unlike; and men are governed by words and not by facts."

"A wise man never loses anything if he has himself."

"Patience and perseverance will carry us through the greatest difficulties."

"The mark of a civilized man is willingness to listen to others without anger."

"In times of tyranny, silence itself is a form of complicity."

"The greatest poverty is to be poor in spirit."

"We should be careful not to believe what we wish to be true."

"True knowledge is knowing what you do not know."

"The best government is the one that teaches its people to govern themselves."

"Fame is a vapor; popularity an accident; riches take wings."

"The greatest victories are often won in the quietest moments of the mind."

"Art imitates nature, but it does so imperfectly and by contrast reveals nature's superiority."