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• I am further of opinion that it would be better for us to have [no laws] at all than to have them in so prodigious numbers as we have.
  -- Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) -- Essays, Book iii, Chap. xiii...
• Like rowers, who advance backward. -- Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) -- Essays, Book iii, Chap.
  i, Of Profit and Honesty...
• There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.
  -- Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) -- Essays, Book i, Chap. xxx, Of Cannibal...
• He that I am reading seems always to have the most force.
  -- Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) -- Essays, Book ii, Chap. xii, Apology for Raimond Sebond...
• The oldest and best known evil was ever more supportable than one that was new and untried.
  -- Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) -- Essays, Book iii, Chap. ix...
• I moreover affirm that our wisdom itself, and wisest consultations, for the most part commit themselves to the conduct of chance.
  -- Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) -- Essays, Book iii, Chap. viii...
• For truth itself has not the privilege to be spoken at all times and in all sorts.
  -- Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) -- Essays, Book iii, Chap. xiii...
• There is, nevertheless, a certain respect and a general duty of humanity that ties us, not only to beasts that have life and sense, but even to trees and plants.
  -- Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) -- Essays, Book ii, Chap. xi, Of Cruelty...
• Saturninus said, "Comrades, you have lost a good captain to make him an ill general.
  -- Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) -- Essays, Book iii, Chap. ix...