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Michel de Montaigne Quotes
1533–1592 France
Michel de Montaigne (Michel Eyquem, lord of the manor of Montaigne, Dordogne) (28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592) was an influential French Renaissance writer, generally considered to be the inventor of the personal essay.
France Essayists Mayors Philosophers Also known as: Michel E. de Montaigne, Michel Eyquem, seigneur de Montaigne, Michel Montaigne, Montaigne, Montaigne, Michel de
Random Michel de Montaigne quote
278 quotes
I want death to find me planting my cabbages.
Essais (1571)
One must draw back in order to leap better.
To an atheist all writings tend to atheism: he corrupts the most innocent matter with his own venom.
Essais (1571)
Things are not so painful and difficult of themselves, but our weakness or cowardice makes them so.
Essais (1571)
It happens as with cages: the birds without despair to get in, and those within despair of getting out.
Essais (1571)
Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a flea, and yet he will be making gods by dozens.
It would be better to have no laws at all than to have them in such profusion as we do.
Essais (1571)
It (marriage) happens as with cages: the birds without despair to get in, and those within despair of getting out.
Essais (1571)
His thoughts have a high aim, though their dwelling be in the vale of a humble heart.
Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922)
He who does not give himself leisure to be thirsty cannot take pleasure in drinking.
Essais (1571)
How many quarrels, and how important, has the doubt as to the meaning of this syllable "Hoc" produced for the world!
All passions that suffer themselves to be relished and digested are but moderate.
Essais (1571)
Man is certainly crazy. He could not make a mite, and he makes gods by the dozen.
Essais (1571)
It belongs to our Christian faith and not to his stoical virtue, to pretend to this divine and miraculous metamorphosis.
The diversity of physical arguments and opinions embraces all sorts of methods.
Essais (1571)
What if he has borrowed the matter and spoiled the form, as it oft falls out?
Essais (1571)
All wisdom is folly that does not accommodate itself to the common ignorance.
We must not attach knowledge to the mind, we have to incorporate it there.
Essais (1571)
All other knowledge is hurtful to him who has not the science of goodness.
Truly man is a marvellously vain, diverse, and undulating object. It is hard to found any constant and uniform judgement on him.
Essais (1571)
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