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
Desire and hope will push us on toward the future.
It is very easy to accuse a government of imperfection, for all mortal things are full of it.
It is not the want, but rather abundance that creates avarice.
It is commonly seen by experience that excellent memories do often accompany weak judgements.
The world is but a school of inquisition; it is not who shall enter the ring, but who shall run the best courses.
The honor we receive from those that fear us, is not honor; those respects are paid to royalty and not to me.
Men are most apt to believe what they least understand.
Nature clasps all her creatures in a universal embrace; there is not one of them which she has not plainly furnished with all means necessary to the conservation of its being.
L'homme est bien insensé. Il ne saurait forger un ciron, et forge des Dieux à douzaines. Man is certainly crazy. He could not make a mite, and he makes gods by the dozen.
Some impose upon the world that they believe that which they do not; others, more in number, make themselves believe that they believe, not being able to penetrate into what it is to believe.
And to bring in a new word by the head and shoulders, they leave out the old one.
A little folly is desirable in him that will not be guilty of stupidity.
The strength of any plan depends on the time. Circumstances and things eternally shift and change.
Man in sooth is a marvellous, vain, fickle, and unstable subject.