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• I, who have so much and so universally adored this [greek], "excellent mediocrity," -- Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) -- Essays, Book iii, Chap.
  xiii...
• 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...
• Not because Socrates said so,... I look upon all men as my compatriots.
  -- Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) -- Essays, Book iii, Chap. ix...
• I have here only made a nosegay of culled flowers, and have brought nothing of my own but the thread that ties them together.
  -- Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) -- Essays, Book iii, Chap. xii...
• Like rowers, who advance backward. -- Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) -- Essays, Book iii, Chap.
  i, Of Profit and Honesty...
• 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...
• What if he has borrowed the matter and spoiled the form, as it oft falls out?
  -- Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) -- Essays, Book iii, Chap. viii...
• There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.
  -- Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) -- Essays, Book i, Chap. xxx, Of Cannibal...
• And to bring in a new word by the head and shoulders, they leave out the old one.
  -- Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) -- Essays, Book iii, Chap. v...