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
Speech belongs half to the speaker, half to the listener. The latter must prepare to receive it according to the motion it takes.
In true friendship, in which I am expert, I give myself to my friend more than I draw him to me. I not only like doing him good better than having him do me good, but also would rather have him do good to himself than to me; he does me most good when he does himself good.
Oh, a friend! How true is that old saying, that the enjoyment of one is sweeter and more necessary than that of the elements of water and fire!
Judgement holds in me a magisterial seat, at least it carefully tries to. It lets my feelings go their way, both hatred and friendship, even the friendship I bear myself, without being changed and corrupted by them.
We cannot be held to what is beyond our strength and means; for at times the accomplishment and execution may not be in our power, and indeed there is nothing really in our own power except the will: on this are necessarily based and founded all the principles that regulate the duty of man.
The thing in the world I am most afraid of is fear.
The virtue of the soul does not consist in flying high, but in walking orderly.
One should be ever booted and spurred and ready to depart.
A man must live in the world and make the best of it, such as it is.
..a man may live long, yet live very little. Satisfaction in life depends not on the number of your years, but on your will.
It is not without good reason, that he who has not a good memory should never take upon him the trade of lying.
No man is so exquisitely honest or upright in living, but that ten times in his life he might not lawfully be hanged.
Things seem greater by imagination than they are in effect.
It is a sign of contraction of the mind when it is content, or of weariness.