No one but yourself knows whether you are cowardly and cruel, or loyal and devout; others do not see you; they surmise you by uncertain conjectures; they perceive not so much your nature as your art.
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne Quotes
Everyone can play the mummer’s part, and represent an honest personage on the stage; but inwardly, within his own bosom, where all is permitted us, where all is concealed, to keep a duel role there, that’s the point.
Confidence in others’ honesty is no light testimony of one’s own integrity.
Few men have been admired by their own domestic servants.
When I play with my cat, who knows whether she isn’t amusing herself with me more than I am with her?
We do not correct the man we hang; we correct others by him.
An unattempted woman cannot boast of her chastity.
A learned person is not learned in everything; but the capable person is capable in everything, even in what he is ignorant of.
A good marriage would be between a blind wife and a deaf husband.
Perhaps it is not without reason that we attribute facility in belief and conviction to simplicity and ignorance; for it seems to me I once learned that belief was sort of an impression made on our mind, and that the softer it is the less resistant the mind, the easier it was to imprint it.
