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
To make judgements about great and lofty things, a soul of the same stature is needed; otherwise we ascribe to them that vice which is our own.
Obstinacy and contention are common qualities, most appearing in, and best becoming, a mean and illiterate soul.
The soul that has no established aim loses itself
The souls of emperors and cobblers are cast in the same mold. The same reason that makes us wrangle with a neighbor creates a war betwixt princes.
The least strained and most natural ways of the soul are the most beautiful; the best occupations are the least forced.
The beautiful souls are they that are universal, open, and ready for all things.
Valor is strength, not of legs and arms, but of heart and soul; it consists not in the worth of our horse or our weapons, but in our own.
The soul which has no fixed purpose in life is lost; to be everywhere, is to be nowhere.
The lack of wealth is easily repaired but the poverty of the soul is irreplaceable.
My home...It is my retreat and resting place from wars, I try to keep this corner as a haven against the tempest outside, as I do another corner in my soul.
Nor is it enough to toughen up his soul; you must also toughen up his muscles.
For among other things he had been counseled to bring me to love knowledge and duty by my own choice, without forcing my will, and to educate my soul entirely through gentleness and freedom.
The virtue of the soul does not consist in flying high, but in walking orderly.
Friendship that possesses the whole soul, and there rules and sways with an absolute sovereignty, can admit of no rival.