Montaigne

The public is a mirror: each man discovers there another face when he knows he is being observed.

Nothing can lower or raise your self from outside; that which remains inwardly free and sincere easily defeats the strongest pressure from the exterior.

This solitude, surrounded by inscriptions, has a measure of the pompous and affected about it. One has the impression that Montaigne sought to impose rigidly on himself a discipline, the discipline of solitude. Since, unlike a hermit, he cannot abide any religious rules, he has to coerce himself into standing firm. Perhaps he is not aware, but it i

Let the young man read and sift and verify, not just accept the authority in good faith. A rich variety of opinions must be presented to him. He will make his choice, and if he cannot, then he will remain in doubt. He who sheep-like follows another follows nothing. He discovers nothing, because he seeks nothing.

The true essence of freedom is that it can never restrict the freedom of another.

For you cannot know the world by just navel-gazing. This is why he reads history and studies philosophy: not to draw lessons and precepts, but to understand how other men have acted in the past, so that he can compare his own situation with theirs.

• He is only a philosopher in the manner of Socrates, whom he revered above all others because he left behind no dogma, no teachings, no law, no system, only an example: the man who seeks himself in all and who seeks all in himself.

One must not allow oneself to be impelled by a sense of duty, overriding passion or naked ambition, to go beyond one’s natural capacity; one should endlessly weigh the genuine value of things and not overestimate them; one should stop when the enjoyment stops. One should safeguard a clear-sighted mind, not become confined but always remain free.

“La plus grande chose du monde c’est de savoir être à soi.”