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
Every one's true worship was that which he found in use in the place where he chanced to be.
Who ever saw a doctor use the prescription of his colleague without cutting out or adding something?
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.
Everyone gives the title of barbarism to everything that is not in use in his own country.
~The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them ~
We are all of us richer than we think we are; but we are taught to borrow and to beg, and brought up more to make use of what is another's than of our own.
There is nothing useless in nature; not even uselessness itself
Those that will combat use and custom by the strict rules of grammar do but jest
Difficulty is a coin the learned make use of like jugglers, to conceal the inanity of their art.
Wit is a dangerous weapon, even to the possessor, if he knows not how to use it discreetly.
In general I ask for books that make use of learning, not those that build it up.
For me, who only desire to become wise, not more learned or eloquent, these logical or Aristotelian dispositions of parts are of no use.
Who is it that does not voluntarily exchange his health, his repose, and his very life for reputation and glory? The most useless, frivolous, and false coin that passes current among us.