Michel de Montaigne Quotes

There is probably an element of malice in our readiness to overestimate people - we are, as it were, laying up for ourselves the pleasure of later cutting them down to size.

The weakness of ourselves and of our reason makes us see flaws in beauties by making us consider everything piece by piece.

It's easy to see the faults in people I know; it's hardest to see the good. Especially when the good isn't there.

There are many lovely women, but no perfect ones.

I liked human beings, but I did not love human nature.

Were we faultless, we would not derive such satisfaction from remarking the faults of others.

A true critic ought to dwell rather upon excellencies than imperfections

Every human perfection is allied to a defect into which it threatens to pass, but it is also true that every defect is allied to a perfection.

My pessimism (which, by the way, is far from absolute) originated with my despair in the lack of perfection to be found in human nature. I was attempting in my successive books to show the inevitable handicap of the human condition.

When you think of the huge uninterrupted success of a book like Don Quixote, you're bound to realize that if humankind have not yet finished being revenged, by sheer laughter, for being let down in their greatest hope, it is because that hope was cherished so long and lay so deep!

It is natural to man to indulge in the illusion of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, till she transforms us into beasts.

God alone is satisfied with what He is and can proclaim: "I am what I am." Unlike God, man strives with all his might to be what he is not. He incessantly proclaims: "I am what I am not.

People are like birds: on the wing, all beautiful; up close, all beady little eyes.

People who ask for your criticism want only praise.

Crippled things are always more beautiful. It's the flaw that brings out beauty.

Humanity's a nice place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there.

No human face is exactly the same in its lines on each side, no leaf perfect in its lobes, no branch in its symmetry. All admit irregularity as they imply change; and to banish imperfection is to destroy expression, to check exertion, to paralyze vitality. All things are literally better, lovelier, and more beloved for the imperfections which have been divinely appointed, that the law of human life may be Effort, and the law of human judgment, Mercy.

If people are innately saddled with certain sins and flaws, like selfishness, prejudice, sort-sightedness, and self-deception, then political reform would seem to be a waste of time.

Imperfections create character.

Some of their faults men readily admit, but others not so readily.

We are eager to believe that others are flawed because we are eager to believe in what we wish for.

...what makes humanity beautiful is our free will, our individuality, our endless striving in spite of our imperfection. BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON Chapter 27 Page 214

People are like birds - from a distance, beautiful: from close up, those sharp beaks, those beady little eyes.

Some critics accuse capitalism of being a selfish system, but the selfishness is not in capitalism - it is in human nature.

I'm like everyone else in this stupid, bloody, amazing world. I'm flawed. Impossibly so. But hopeful. I'm still me.