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
I speak the truth not so much as I would, but as much as I dare, and I dare a little more as I grow older.
Long life, and short, are by death made all one; for there is no long, nor short, to things that are no more.
The perpetual work of your life is but to lay the foundation of death.
In nine lifetimes, you'll never know as much about your cat as your cat knows about you.
There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.
My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened.
Those who have compared our life to a dream were right... we were sleeping wake, and waking sleep.
We trouble our life by thoughts about death, and our death by thoughts about life.
Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.
If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I was I.
~The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them ~
A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears.
Learned we may be with another man's learning: we can only be wise with wisdom of our own.
It needs good management to enjoy life. I enjoy it twice as much as others, for the measure of enjoyment depends on the greater or less attention that we give to it...The shorter my possession of life the deeper and fuller I must make it.