Michel de Montaigne Quotes About Virtue
-
Virtue shuns ease as a companion. It demands a rough and thorny path.
→ -
We may so seize on virtue, that if we embrace it with an overgreedy and violent desire, it may become vicious.
→ -
The first law that ever God gave to man was a law of pure obedience; it was a commandment naked and simple, wherein man had nothing to inquire after, or to dispute, forasmuch as to obey is the proper office of a rational soul, acknowledging a heavenly superior and benefactor. From obedience and submission spring all other virtues, as all sin does from self-opinion.
→ -
The recognition of virtue is not less valuable from the lips of the man who hates it, since truth forces him to acknowledge it; and though he may be unwilling to take it into his inmost soul, he at least decks himself out in its trappings.
→ -
The easy, gentle, and sloping path . . . is not the path of true virtue. It demands a rough and thorny road.
→ -
The height and value of true virtue consists in the facility, utility, and pleasure of its exercise; so far from difficulty, that boys, as well as men, and the innocent as well as the subtle, may make it their own; and it is by order and good conduct, and not by force, that it is to be acquired.
→ -
I must use these great men's virtues as a cloak for my weakness.
→ -
I find that the best virtue I have has in it some tincture of vice.
→ -
The virtue of the soul does not consist in flying high, but in walking orderly.
→ -
There is no virtue which does not rejoice a well-descended nature; there is a kind of I know not what congratulation in well-doing, that gives us an inward satisfaction, and a certain generous boldness that accompanies a good conscience.
→ -
Disappointment and feebleness imprint upon us a cowardly and valetudinarian virtue.
→ -
It is the part of cowardliness, and not of virtue, to seek to squat itself in some hollow lurking hole, or to hide herself under some massive tomb, thereby to shun the strokes of fortune.
→ -
From Obedience and submission comes all our virtues, and all sin is comes from self-opinion.
→ -
If virtue cannot shine bright, but by the conflict of contrary appetites, shall we then say that she cannot subsist without the assistance of vice, and that it is from her that she derives her reputation and honor?
→ -
Now, of all the benefits that virtue confers upon us, the contempt of death is one of the greatest.
→ -
The shortest way to arrive at glory should be to do that for conscience which we do for glory. And the virtue of Alexander appears to me with much less vigor in his theater than that of Socrates in his mean and obscure. I can easily conceive Socrates in the place of Alexander, but Alexander in that of Socrates I cannot.
→ -
In truth, the care and expense of our fathers aims only at furnishing our heads with knowledge; of judgement and virtue, little news.
→ -
There is no course of life so weak and sottish as that which is managed by order, method, and discipline.
→ -
Who is only good that others may know it, and that he may be the better esteemed when 'tis known, who will do well but upon condition that his virtue may be known to men, is one from whom much service is not to be expected.
→ -
The strangest, most generous, and proudest of all virtues is true courage.
→ -
Virtue rejects facility to be her companion. She requires a craggy, rough and thorny way.
→ -
Virtue can have naught to do with ease. . . . It craves a steep and thorny path.
→ -
As for our pupils talk, let his virtue and his sense of right and wrong shine through it and have no guide but reason. Make him understand that confessing an error which he discovers in his own argument even when he alone has noticed it is an act of justice and integrity, which are the main qualities he pursues; stubbornness and rancour are vulgar qualities, visible in common souls whereas to think again, to change one's mind and to give up a bad case on the heat of the argument are rare qualities showing strength and wisdom.
→ -
Knowledge is an excellent drug; but no drug has virtue enough to preserve itself from corruption and decay, if the vessel be tainted and impure wherein it is put to keep.
→ -
Seneca's virtue shows forth so live and vigorous in his writings, and the defense is so clear there against some of these imputations, as that of his wealth and excessive spending, that I would not believe any testimony to the contrary.
→ -
The confidence in another man's virtue is no light evidence of a man's own, and God willingly favors such a confidence.
→ -
Virtue cannot be followed but for herself, and if one sometimes borrows her mask to some other purpose, she presently pulls it away again.
→ -
We owe subjection and obedience to all our kings, whether good or bad, alike, for that has respect unto their office; but as to esteem and affection, these are only due to their virtue.
→ -
There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.
→ -
No profession or occupation is more pleasing than the military; a profession or exercise both noble in execution (for the strongest, most generous and proudest of all virtues is true valor) and noble in its cause. No utility either more just or universal than the protection of the repose or defense of the greatness of one's country. The company and daily conversation of so many noble, young and active men cannot but be well-pleasing to you.
→
Related Authors
-
Plutarch Biographer -
Blaise Pascal Mathematician -
Francois Rabelais Writer -
Friedrich Nietzsche Philologist -
Voltaire Writer -
William Shakespeare Poet -
Baron de Montesquieu Author -
Rene Descartes Philosopher -
Petrarch Poet -
Desiderius Erasmus Theologian -
Pierre de Ronsard Poet -
Francis Bacon Former Lord Chancellor -
Arthur Schopenhauer Philosopher -
Miguel de Cervantes Novelist -
Niccolo Machiavelli Historian -
Jean-Jacques Rousseau Philosopher -
Thomas More Saint -
Marcel Proust Novelist -
Etienne de La Boetie Writer -
Giordano Bruno Philosopher