Quote
By Michel de Montaigne
The most manifest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness; her state is like that of things in the regions above the moon, always clear and serene.
- Source
- Essays of Michel de Montaigne, translated by Charles Cotton, 1877 · Book I, chapter 25, Of the Education of Children
- Read at
- Translated by Charles Cotton; edited and revised by William Carew Hazlitt (London, 1877); Project Gutenberg eBook #3600
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From the essay Of the Education of Children (Book I, chapter 25 in Charles Cotton's translation, revised by W. C. Hazlitt, 1877). Montaigne wrote in French, so this is the translator's wording. The popular version, "the most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness", is a loose paraphrase.