Michel de Montaigne on Truth

"He who is not sure of his memory, should not undertake the trade of lying."

"In plain truth, lying is an accursed vice. We are not men, nor have any other tie upon another, but by our word."

"Apollo said that every one's true worship was that which he found in use in the place where he chanced to be."

"I speak truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare; and I dare a little the more as I grow older."

"For truth itself has not the privilege to be spoken at all times and in all sorts."

"The strangest, most generous, and proudest of all virtues is true courage."

"I do myself a greater injury in lying than I do him of whom I tell a lie."

"Virtue refuses facility for her companion … the easy, gentle, and sloping path that guides the footsteps of a good natural disposition is not the path of true virtue. It demands a rough and thorny road."

"In true education, anything that comes to our hand is as good as a book: the prank of a page-boy, the blunder of a servant, a bit of table talk— they are all part of the curriculum."

"The mariner of old said to Neptune in a great tempest, "O God! thou mayest save me if thou wilt, and if thou wilt thou mayest destroy me; but whether or no, I will steer my rudder true."

"Not because Socrates said so, but because it is in truth my own disposition — and perchance to some excess — I look upon all men as my compatriots, and embrace a Pole as a Frenchman, making less account of the national than of the universal and common bond."