"Montaigne speaks of an “Abecedarian” ignorance that precedes knowledge, and a doctoral ignorance that comes after it. The first is the ignorance of those who, not knowing their A-B-C’s, cannot read at all. The second is the ignorance of those who have misread many books."

"Writing does not cause misery. It is born of misery."

"Wonder is the foundation of all philosophy, research is the means of all learning, and ignorance is the end."

"Who does not in some sort live to others, does not live much to himself."

"When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind."

"We only labor to stuff the memory, and leave the conscience and the understanding unfurnished and void."

"We can be knowledgeable with other men's knowledge, but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom."

"Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul."

"'Tis the sharpness of our mind that gives the edge to our pains and pleasures."

"Those that will combat use and custom by the strict rules of grammar do but jest."

"There is nothing more notable in Socrates than that he found time, when he was an old man, to learn music and dancing, and thought it time well spent."

"There is no pleasure to me without communication: there is not so much as a sprightly thought comes into my mind that it does not grieve me to have produced alone, and that I have no one to tell it to."

"There is no passion so contagious as that of fear."

"There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees."

"There is little less trouble in governing a private family than a whole kingdom."

"There is a sort of gratification in doing good which makes us rejoice in ourselves."

"There is a plague on Man, the opinion that he knows something."

"The worst of my actions or conditions seem not so ugly unto me as I find it both ugly and base not to dare to avouch for them."

"The world is but a perpetual see-saw."

"The world is all a carcass and vanity, The shadow of a shadow, a play And in one word, just nothing."

"The way of the world is to make laws, but follow custom."

"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."

"The strangest, most generous, and proudest of all virtues is true courage."

"The most profound joy has more of gravity than of gaiety in it."

"The most manifest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness; her state is like that in the regions above the moon, always clear and serene."

"The entire lower world was created in the likeness of the higher world. All that exists in the higher world appears like an image in this lower world; yet all this is but One."

"The ceaseless labour of your life is to build the house of death."

"The art of dining well is no slight art, the pleasure not a slight pleasure."

"Book I, Ch. 8"

"So it is with minds. Unless you keep them busy with some definite subject that will bridle and control them, they throw themselves in disorder hither and yon in the vague field of imagination. ..And there is no mad or idle fancy that they do no bring forth in the agitation."

"Rejoice in the things that are present; all else is beyond thee."

"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."

"Of all our infirmities, the most savage is to despise our being."

"Observe, observe perpetually."

"Nothing prints more lively in our minds than something we wish to forget."

"Not being able to govern events, I govern myself."

"No wind serves him who addresses his voyage to no certain port."

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

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

"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."

"Make your educational laws strict and your criminal ones can be gentle; but if you leave youth its liberty you will have to dig dungeons for ages."

"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."

"Labour not after riches first, and think thou afterwards wilt enjoy them. He who neglecteth the present moment, throweth away all that he hath. As the arrow passeth through the heart, while the warrior knew not that it was coming; so shall his life be taken away before he knoweth that he hath it."

"It should be noted that children at play are not playing about; their games should be seen as their most serious-minded activity."

"It is the mind that maketh good or ill, That maketh wretch or happy, rich or poor."

"It is not death, it is dying that alarms me."

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

"In true education, anything that comes to our hand is as good as a book: the prank of a page-boy, the blunder of a servant, a bit of table talk— they are all part of the curriculum."