A Catalog of Montaigne's Beam Inscriptions

Why with designs for the far future do you weary a mind that is unequal to them?

(Horace–Carmina II.11)

It is no more in this way than in that, or in neither.

(Aulus Gellius, via Henricius Stephanus’ 1562 annotated edition of Sextus Empiricus)

The only certainty is that nothing is certain, and that nothing is less noble or more proud than man.

(Pliny–Naturalis Historia II.5)

[I take for my guide] the ways of the world and the experiences of the senses.

Be no wiser than is necessary, but be wise in moderation. Letter of Paul to the Romans, 12

The fool has more hope of wisdom than the man who calls himself wise. Proverbs 26

If any man thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Letter of Paul to the Galatians, 6[.3].

Each has his own tastes, Gods and men alike.

(Euripides–Hippolytus 104, from Erasmus)

Happy is he who has fortunes and reason.

(Menander–Mon. 340, from Stobaeus)