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
Each man calls barbarism whatever is not his own practice; for indeed it seems we have no other test of truth and reason than the example and pattern of the opinions and customs of the country we live in
The middle sort of historians (of which the most part are) spoil all; they will chew our meat for us.
I do not speak the minds of others except to speak my own mind better.
It is a thorny undertaking, and more so than it seems, to follow a movement so wandering as that of our mind, to penetrate the opaque depths of its innermost folds, to pick out and immobilize the innumerable flutterings that agitate it.
Thus we should beware of clinging to vulgar opinions, and judge things by reason's way, not by popular say.
Virtue can have naught to do with ease. . . . It craves a steep and thorny path.
The easy, gentle, and sloping path . . . is not the path of true virtue. It demands a rough and thorny road.
Amongst all other vices there is none I hate more than cruelty, both by nature and judgment, as the extremest of all vices.
I consider myself an average man, except in the fact that I consider myself an average man.
Obstinacy is the sister of constancy, at least in vigor and stability.
Have you known how to take rest? You have done more than he who hath taken empires and cities.
The same reason that makes us chide and brawl and fall out with any of our neighbors, causeth a war to follow between Princes.
We endeavor more that men should speak of us, than how and what they speak, and it sufficeth us that our name run in men's mouths, in what manner soever. It stemma that to be known is in some sort to have life and continuance in other men's keeping.
The worthiest man to be known, and for a pattern to be presented to the world, he is the man of whom we have most certain knowledge. He hath been declared and enlightened by the most clear-seeing men that ever were; the testimonies we have of him are in faithfulness and sufficiency most admirable.