Michel de Montaigne Quotes

Erudition - dust shaken out of a book into an empty skull.

The human mind always makes progress, but it is a progress in spirals.

At around nine or 10 years of age, young people start to decide for themselves what's moral or not, and that's why I like writing for that age group so much.

Every mind was made for growth, for knowledge, and its nature is sinned against when it is doomed to ignorance.

Not to engage in the pursuit of ideas is to live like ants instead of like men.

If we extend our senses, then, consequently, we will extend our knowledge. It's really very basic.

Reading is a means of thinking with another person's mind; it forces you to stretch your own.

Education is not to reform students or amuse them or to make them expert technicians. It is to unsettle their minds, widen their horizons, inflame their intellects, teach them to think straight, if possible.

Learn avidly. Question repeatedly what you have learned. Analyze it carefully. Then put what you have learned into practice intelligently.

We live in a society where not everybody has intelligence, or understanding or is thinking of what's right and what's wrong.

One thing that never ceases to amaze me, along with the growth of vegetation from the earth and of hair from the head, is the growth of understanding.

A book is quite a beautiful thing, even more so learning. Together, however, all they amount to is called book-learning.

One thing I am determined on is that by the time I die my brain shall weigh as much as a man's if study and learning can make it so.

A man of sense, though born without wit, often lives to have wit. His memory treasures up ideas and reflections; he compares themwith new occurrences, and strikes out new lights from the collision. The consequence is sometimes bons mots, and sometimes apothegms.

Learning makes the wise wiser and the fool more foolish.

Book - Learning : The dunce's derisive term for all knowledge that transcends his own impertinent ignorance.

Knowledge makes people special. Knowledge enriches life itself.

The drive to learn is as strong as the sexual drive. It begins earlier and lasts longer

Knowledge is a thing that one cannot have enough of. It is the fruit of wisdom, to be eaten carefully and digested fully, unlike that lunch you are bolting down, little friend.

Men that love wisdom must be acquainted with very many things indeed.

As countries get rich they start increasing education and the very educated people tend to not like trial and error, because they think they're obligated to use the body of knowledge they have.

If boys don't learn, men won't know.

The greater our level of understanding, the harder the tests become.

Reading is not just an escape. It is access to a better way of life.