Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
Michel Eyquem de Montaignewas one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance, known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre. His work is noted for its merging of casual anecdotes and autobiography with serious intellectual insight; his massive volume Essaiscontains some of the most influential essays ever written. Montaigne had a direct influence on writers all over the world, including Francis Bacon, René Descartes, Blaise Pascal, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Albert Hirschman, William Hazlitt, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Friedrich Nietzsche,...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth28 February 1533
CountryFrance
He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak.
He who fears he will suffer, already suffers from his fear.
I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.
We are all patchwork, and so shapeless and diverse in composition that each bit, each moment, plays its own game.
I know well what I am fleeing from but not what I am in search of.
I study myself more than any other subject. That is my metaphysics, that is my physics.
The births of all things are weak and tender and therefore we should have our eyes intent on beginnings.
Not being able to govern events, I govern myself, and apply myself to them if they will not apply themselves to me.
Excellent memories are often coupled with feeble judgments.
Saying is one thing, doing another. We must consider the sermon and the preacher distinctly and apart.
We trouble our life by thoughts about death, and our death by thoughts about life.
I quote others in order to better express myself.
Things are not bad in themselves, but our cowardice makes them so.
He whose mouth is out of taste says the wine is flat.