Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
People often want what they cannot have and want to escape what they chose.
In plain terms
Freedom makes us want constraints, and constraints make us want freedom.
What can you take from it?
Desire often opposes our current state.

Where it applies

  • relationship struggles
  • career choices
  • social norms

Putting it to work

  • accept your current state
  • understand desire is fickle

Questions to consider

  • Are you seeking what you have?
  • Why is freedom both desired and feared?

Another view

Some people are content in their chosen paths.

More from Michel de Montaigne

  1. Chaque homme porte la forme, entiere de l'humaine condition.

    Permalink to quote #41
  2. Not because Socrates said so, but because it is in truth my own disposition - and perchance to some excess - I look upon all men as my compatriots, and embrace…

    Permalink to quote #43
  3. Few men have been admired by their own households.

    Permalink to quote #40

Related quotes

  1. Better to be a begger and single than a queen and married.

    Elizabeth I of EnglandElizabeth I of England quote #17
  2. This I set down as a positive truth. A woman with fair opportunities, and without a positive hump, may marry whom she likes.

    William Makepeace ThackerayWilliam Makepeace Thackeray quote #20
  3. Marriage is a fine institution, but I'm not ready for an institution.[6]

    Mae WestMae West quote #32