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
We can be knowledgable with other men's knowledge but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom.
If faces were not alike, we could not distinguish men from beasts; if they were not different, we could not tell one man from another.
A man may by custom fortify himself against pain, shame, and suchlike accidents; but as to death, we can experience it but once, and are all apprentices when we come to it
Most men are rich in borrowed sufficiency: a man may very well say a good thing, give a good answer, cite a good sentence, without at all seeing the force of either the one or the other.
No man divulges his revenue, or at least which way it comes in: but every one publishes his acquisitions.
The man who thinks he knows does not yet know what knowing is
The utility of living consists not in the length of days, but in the use of time; a man may have lived long, and yet lived but a little.
I must use these great men's virtues as a cloak for my weakness.
A man should keep for himself a little back shop, all his own, quite unadulterated, in which he establishes his true freedom and chief place of seclusion and solitude.
We are more solicitous that men speak of us, than how they speak.
No man dies before his hour. The time you leave behind was no more yours, than that which was before your birth, and concerneth you no more.
The plague of man is boasting of his knowledge.
In my opinion , every rich man is a miser.
Few men are admired by their servants.