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
Travelling through the world produces a marvellous clarity in the judgment of men. We are all of us confined and enclosed within ourselves, and see no farther than the end of our nose.
What kind of truth is this which is true on one side of a mountain and false on the other?
I would have every man write what he knows and no more.
The laws keep up their credit, not by being just, but because they are laws; 'tis the mystic foundation of their authority; they have no other, and it well answers their purpose. They are often made by fools; still oftener by men who, out of hatred to equality, fail in equity; but always by men, vain and irresolute authors.
As far as I am concerned, no road that would lead us to health is either arduous or expensive.
There is no passion so contagious as that of fear.
Love to his soul gave eyes; he knew things are not as they seem. The dream is his real life; the world around him is the dream.
Marriage, a market which has nothing free but the entrance.
No wind serves him who addresses his voyage to no certain port.
The religion of my doctor or my lawyer cannot matter. That consideration has nothing in common with the functions of the friendship they owe me.
Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of soul, impossible.
It is the mind that maketh good or ill, That maketh wretch or happy, rich or poor.
Let us not be ashamed to speak what we shame not to think.
The world is but a perennial movement. All things in it are in constant motion-the earth, the rocks of the Caucasus, the pyramids of Egypt-both with the common motion and with their own.