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
From Obedience and submission comes all our virtues, and all sin is comes from self-opinion.
The body enjoys a great share in our being, and has an eminent place in it. Its structure and composition, therefore, are worthy of proper consideration.
The relish of good and evil depends in a great measure upon the opinion we have of them.
A man must learn to endure patiently what he cannot avoid conveniently.
The daughter-in-law of Pythagoras said that a woman who goes to bed with a man ought to lay aside her modesty with her skirt, and put it on again with her petticoat
Those that will combat use and custom by the strict rules of grammar do but jest
Satiety comes of too frequent repetition and he who will not give himself leisure to be thirsty can never find the true pleasure of drinking
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.