Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533–92) was a French essayist. Regarded as the creator and one of the great masters of the essay form, Montaigne wrote about important personalities and ideas of his age in his Skeptical Essais (1572–80, 1588; Essays, 1603.)
Born into a family of wealthy merchants near Bordeaux, Montaigne spoke no language but Latin until he was six. He studied law and served as a magistrate and mayor of Bordeaux, and engaged in diplomacy during the French religious civil wars.
In 1570, Montaigne renounced his civic responsibilities to devote himself to the administration of his estate and to write. He called his short works ‘essais,’ or ‘attempts’—they deal with an eclectic range of themes. Even though he never considered himself a philosopher, he is now seen as one of the most outstanding Sceptical thinkers of early modern Europe; his philosophical standpoint was broadly an argument for introspection.
Montaigne published three books of essays; a fourth appeared posthumously in 1595. His approachable style, intelligence, and subtle thought have made him one of the most widely admired writers of the Renaissance. His essays greatly influenced French and English literature.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Michel de Montaigne
The confidence in another man’s virtue is no light evidence of a man’s own, and God willingly favors such a confidence.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Confidence
The most manifest sign of wisdom is continued cheerfulness; her estate is like that of the things in the regions above the moon, always clear and serene.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Wisdom
The finest lives, in my opinion, are those who rank in the common model, and with the human race, but without miracle, without extravagance.
—Michel de Montaigne
The great and glorious masterpiece of man is to know how to live to purpose; all other things, to reign, to lay up treasure, to build, are at the most but mere appendixes and little props.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Purpose, Aspirations, Goals
It is the rule of rules, and the general law of all laws, that every person should observe the fashions of the place where he is.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Fashion
Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside equally desperate to get out.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Marriage
No wind serves him who addresses his voyage to no certain port.
—Michel de Montaigne
My library is my kingdom, and here I try to make my rule absolute-shutting off this single nook from wife, daughter and society. Elsewhere I have only a verbal authority, and vague. Unhappy is the man, in my opinion, who has no spot at home where he can be at home to himself-to court himself and hide away.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Self-Discovery
It should be noted that children’s games are not merely games. One should regard them as their most serious activities.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Children, Leisure
The general order of things that takes care of fleas and moles also takes care of men, if they will have the same patience that fleas and moles have, to leave it to itself.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Patience
Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Confidence
Necessity reconciles and brings men together; and this accidental connection afterwards forms itself into laws.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Necessity
A straight oar looks bent in the water. What matters is not merely that we see things but how we see them.
—Michel de Montaigne
The want of goods is easily repaired, but the poverty of the soul is irreparable.
—Michel de Montaigne
Man is stark mad; he cannot make a flea, and yet he will be making gods by the dozens.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Humanity
Men throw themselves on foreign assistances to spare their own, which, after all, are the only certain and sufficient ones.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Self-reliance, Being Ourselves, Self-Discovery
I write to keep from going mad from the contradictions I find among mankind—and to work some of those contradictions out for myself.
—Michel de Montaigne
The estimate and valor of a man consists in the heart and in the will; there his true honor lies. Valor is stability, not of arms and legs, but of courage and the soul; it does not lie in the valor of our horse, nor of our arms, but in ourselves. He that falls obstinate in his courage, if his legs fail him, fights upon his knees.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Courage
He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Argument
Whether you find satisfaction in life depends not on your tale of years, but on your will.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Satisfaction
Those who give the first shock to a state are naturally the first to be overwhelmed in its ruin. The fruits of public commotion are seldom enjoyed by the man who was the first to set it a-going; he only troubles the water for another’s net.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Revolution
My reason is not framed to bend or stoop: my knees are.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Slavery
There is not much less vexation in the government of a private family than in the managing of an entire state.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Family
Not being able to govern events, I govern myself, and apply myself to them, if they will not apply themselves to me.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Discipline, Integrity, Self-Control
Health is a precious thing, and the only one, in truth, meriting that a man should lay out not only his time, sweat, labor and goods, but also life itself to obtain it.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Health
The advantage of living is not measured by length, but by use; some men have lived long, and lived little; attend to it while you are in it. It lies in your will, not in the number of years, for you to have lived enough.
—Michel de Montaigne
No wind favors him who has no destined port.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Destiny, Goals
The finest lives, in my opinion, are those who rank in the common model, and with the human race, but without miracle, without extravagance.
—Michel de Montaigne
I care not so much what I am in the opinion of others as what I am in my own; I would be rich of myself and not by borrowing.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Self-Discovery, Confidence, Opinion, Realization, Awareness, Acceptance, Self-respect
My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Misfortunes, Worry
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