"All the opinions in the world point out that pleasure is our aim."

Michel de Montaigne Philosophy See all quotes by Michel de Montaigne →

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“The day of your birth is one day’s advance towards the grave.”

“All the opinions of the world agree in this, that pleasure is our end.”

“Je veux que la mort me trouve plantant mes choux.”

“He who should teach men to die would at the same time teach them to live.”

“C'est ce de quoi j'ai le plus de peur que la peur.”

“We are, I know not how, double in ourselves, which is the cause that what we believe we do not believe, and cannot disengage ourselves from what we condemn.”

Resonant Thoughts

"The Face first grows lank and wrinkled; then the Neck; then the Breast and Arms; the lower Parts continuing to the last as plump as ever: So that covering all above with a Basket, and regarding only w…"

— Benjamin Franklin

Politics1812–1878

#happiness

"Most writers enjoy two periods of happiness – when a glorious idea comes to mind and, secondly, when a last page has been written and you haven’t had time to know how much better it ought to be."

— J. B. Priestley

Literature1894–1984

#happiness

"Both the existence of these parallels and their tragic nature would not have escaped Charles Kindleberger, whose World in Depression, 1929-1939 was published exactly 40 years ago, in 1973. Where Kindl…"

— Barry Eichengreen

Economics1952

#leadership

"But the problem for the is that their general premise can be used as the basis for an equally good argument against capitalism, an argument that the so-called losers of economic transition in eastern …"

— Kristen Ghodsee

Education1970

#wisdom