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
Repentance is no other than a recanting of the will, and opposition to our fancies, which lead us which way they please.
We do not correct the man we hang; we correct others by him.
We have more poets than judges and interpreters of poetry. It is easier to write an indifferent poem than to understand a good one. There is, indeed, a certain low and moderate sort of poetry, that a man may well enough judge by certain rules of art; but the true, supreme, and divine poesy is equally above all rules and reason. And whoever discerns the beauty of it with the most assured and most steady sight sees no more than the quick reflection of a flash of lightning.
We are Christians by the same title as we are natives of Perigord or Germany.
It is a sign of contraction of the mind when it is content, or of weariness. A spirited mind never stops within itself; it is always aspiring and going beyond its strength.
I put forward formless and unresolved notions, as do those who publish doubtful questions to debate in the schools, not to establish the truth but to seek it.
The premeditation of death is the premeditation of liberty; he who has learnt to die has forgot to serve.
The worst condition of humans is when they lose knowledge and control of themselves.
The world always looks straights ahead; as for me, I turn my gaze inward, I fix it there and keep it busy. Everyone looks in front of him: as for me, I look inside me: I have no business but with myself; I continually observe myself, I take stock of myself, I taste myself. Others...they always go forward; as for me, I roll about in myself.
Writing does not cause misery. It is born of misery.
We may so seize on virtue, that if we embrace it with an overgreedy and violent desire, it may become vicious.
There is a plague on Man, the opinion that he knows something.
Some, either from being glued to vice by a natural attachment, or from long habit, no longer recognize its ugliness.
Shame on all eloquence which leaves us with a taste for itself and not for its substance.