All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.
Michel De MontaigneRead
The pleasantest things in the world are pleasant thoughts, and the great art of life is to have as many of them as possible.
Interpretation
Positive thoughts lead to a joyful life, and one should cultivate them abundantly.
This quote emphasizes the importance of maintaining a positive mindset and nurturing pleasant thoughts as a key component of enjoying life. According to Montaigne, the ability to find and embrace joy through our thoughts is an essential art that contributes significantly to our overall happiness and fulfillment in life.
In practice
I shared this quote during a motivational workshop to inspire participants to focus on positive thinking.
All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.
All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed.
Pythagoras used to say that life resembles the Olympic Games: a few people strain their muscles to carry off a prize; others bring trinkets to sell to the crowd for gain; and some there are, and not the worst, who seek no other profit than to look at the show and see how and why everything is done; spectators of the life of other people in order to judge and regulate their own.
There is not much less vexation in the government of a private family than in the managing of an entire state.
Those who have compared our life to a dream were right... we were sleeping wake, and waking sleep.
Such as are in immediate fear of a losing their estates, of banishment, or of slavery, live in perpetual anguish, and lose all appetite and repose; whereas such as are actually poor, slaves, or exiles, ofttimes live as merrily as other folk.
Taking a hypersensitive approach to life had come to seem so much more pure and honest then joining the ranks of the numb masses who could let it all slide by. What I stopped realizing was that if you feel everything intensely, ultimately you feel nothing at all. Everything registers at the same decibel.
Every man is valued in this world as he shows by his conduct that he wishes to be valued.
In all forms of strategy, it is necessary to maintain the combat stance in everyday life and to make your everyday stance your combat stance.
Justice is sweet and musical; but injustice is harsh and discordant.
My characters aren't losers. They're rebels. They win by their refusal to play by everyone else's rules.
We make a space inside ourselves, so that being can speak.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.