Michel de Montaigne Quotes

Memory is each man's own last measure, and for some, the only achievement.

Of all the faculties of the mind, memory is the first that flourishes, and the first that dies.

I want to have all of my faculties.

The human mind is our fundamental resource.

Intelligence is the wife, imagination is the mistress, memory is the servant.

All this is applicable to the intellectual faculties of man. There is a considerable difference between one person and another as regards these faculties, as is well known to philosophers.

[Warren] Harding is incapable of thought, because he has nothing to think with.

A strong memory is generally joined to a weak judgment.

The individual is the brain, not the heart.

Sometimes, an actress maybe knows how to think.

Some people are amazed at my brain, but really it's nothing.

That woman doesn't have the sense God gave a retarded flea.

In all the universe there is nothing more precious than mind.

Simple minds, presumably, are the easiest to manage.

I'm aware of everything - it's my job - I keep up to speed, and I have a blessed memory. The brain chemistry I have is such that my memory is wonderful. And sometimes it's helpful, and other times it ends up being frustrating.

The issue we are reluctant to talk about is even more sensitive than condoms. The issue - and I will try to be tasteful here - is that sometimes it seems like maybe the president of the United States is kind of dumb. If you get what I mean. What I mean is, I am not totally confident that the president would get what I mean, unless several aides explained it to him. And even then, he might forget.

Intelligence is a critical thing.

If you only have brains on your head you would be as good a man as any of them, and a better man than some of them. Brains are the only things worth having in this world, no matter whether one is a crow or a man.

Man's mind is his basic tool of survival.

...the nose is generally the organ in which stupidity is most readily displayed.

Perhaps the best test of a man's intelligence is his capacity for making a summary.

Excellent memories are often coupled with feeble judgments.

Intelligence is something we are born with. Thinking is a skill that must be learned.

[...]my memory is reasonably good—unlike yours, dear sir!” “Mine is erratic,” he said imperturbably. “I remember only what interests me.

Man's status in the natural world is determined, therefore, by the quality of his thinking.