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
If others examined themselves attentively, as I do, they would find themselves, as I do, full of inanity and nonsense. Get rid of it I cannot without getting rid of myself.
Whatever is enforced by command is more imputed to him who exacts than to him who performs.
No doctor takes pleasure in the health even of his friends.
Example is a bright looking-glass, universal and for all shapes to look into.
The worth of the mind consisteth not in going high, but in marching orderly.
I look upon the too good opinion that man has of himself, as the nursing mother of all false opinions, both public and private.
It is only reasonable to allow the administration of affairs to mothers before their children reach the age prescribed by law at which they themselves can be responsible. But that father would have reared them ill who could not hope that in their maturity they would have more wisdom and competence than his wife.
We feel a kind of bittersweet pricking of malicious delight in contemplating the misfortunes of others.
Men throw themselves on foreign assistances to spare their own, which, after all, are the only certain and sufficient ones.
Friendship is the highest degree of perfection in society.
I have often seen people uncivil by too much civility, and tiresome in their courtesy.
Silence and modesty are very valuable qualities in conversation.
I do not teach. I relate.
My reason is not framed to bend or stoop: my knees are.