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
Even on the most exalted throne in the world we are only sitting on our own bottom.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Success, Success & Failure
It is the part of cowardliness, and not of virtue, to seek to squat itself in some hollow lurking hole, or to hide herself under some massive tomb, thereby to shun the strokes of fortune.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Suicide
He who should teach men to die, would, at the same time, teach them to live.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Death
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: Valor, Courage
My home…It is my retreat and resting place from wars, I try to keep this corner as a haven against the tempest outside, as I do another corner in my soul.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Home
The finest thing in the world is knowing how to belong to oneself.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Self-Discovery
There have been many laws made by men which swerve from honesty, reason, and the dictates of nature. By the law of arms he is degraded from all honor who puts up with an affront; and by the civil law, he that takes vengeance for it, incurs a capital punishment; he that seeks redress by law for an affront is disgraced; and he that seeks redress not in this way is punished by the laws.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Law
He that is a friend to himself, know; he is a friend to all.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Friendship
I look upon it as an equal injustice to loath natural pleasures as to be too much in love with them.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Pleasure
It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Conversation, Communication
The worth of the mind consisteth not in going high, but in marching orderly.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Mind
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, Cheerfulness
The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them; a man may live long yet live very little.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Time Management
I am further of opinion that it would be better for us to have (no laws) at all than to have them in so prodigious numbers as we have.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Justice
A man should keep for himself a little back shop, all his own, quite unadulterated, in which he establishes his true freedom and chief place of seclusion and solitude.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Solitude
We can be knowledgeable with other men’s knowledge, but we cannot be wise with other men’s wisdom.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Knowledge, Wisdom
We are never present with, but always beyond ourselves.—Fear, desire, and hope are still pushing us on toward the future.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Progress
Taking it all in all, I find it is more trouble to watch after money than to get it.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Money
All the fame you should look for in life is to have lived it quietly.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Fame
When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Thinking, Thought, Thoughts
The weeping of an heir is laughter in disguise.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Inheritance
Oh, what a valiant faculty is hope.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Hope
I tell the truth, not as much as I would like to, but as much as I dare. I dare more and more as I grow older.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Truth
I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Reason
The most profound joy has more of gravity than of gaiety in it.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Excitement, Joy
‘Tis an absolute and, as it were, divine perfection for man to know how to fully realize his nature.
—Michel de Montaigne
When I play with my cat, who knows if I am not a pastime for her more than she is to me?
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Cats
Age imprints more wrinkles in the mind than it does on the face.
—Michel de Montaigne
Topics: Aging, Age
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
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
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Voltaire French Philosopher, Author
Albert Camus Algerian-born French Philosopher
Gaston Bachelard French Philosopher
Denis Diderot French Philosopher, Writer
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin French Jesuit Scientist
Simone de Beauvoir French Philosopher
Michel Foucault French Philosopher
Jean-Paul Sartre French Philosopher
Henri Bergson French Philosopher
Georges Bataille French Essayist, Intellectual