Michel de Montaigne

"My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened."

"No man is exempt from saying silly things; the misfortune is to say them deliberately."

"I would rather understand one thing thoroughly than understand a hundred things superficially."

"True friendship requires you to be fully present when with your friend."

"A man ought to compare himself with the best of the past, not with the worst of his own time."

"The mind of a man is like a knife without a handle: easy to hurt oneself with it."

"He who sees the truth, let him proclaim it, without asking who is to profit by it."

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

"Ignorance is the mother of admiration."

"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."

"Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a flea, yet he will be making gods by dozens."

"Every man has within himself the whole human condition."

"A man is as wretched as he has convinced himself he is."

"The souls of emperors and cobblers are cast in the same mold."

"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves."

"The best way to keep one's word is not to give it."

"It is the nature of the mind to be attracted by novelty."

"Travel is the best teacher of life."

"Each man calls barbarism whatever is not his own practice."

"Words are men's shadows."

"There is nothing permanent except change."

"We cannot think too highly of our duties, nor too meanly of ourselves."

"The foundation of justice is good faith."

"Time is the most precious capital that man has."

"I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship."

"It is better to have a lion in your army than to be a sheep with many."

"He who fears he will suffer, already suffers because he fears."

"There is no greater folly than to run after happiness."

"To know how to live is my trade and my art."

"The most profitable learning is that which teaches us to unlearn evil things."