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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
Were I to live my life over again, I should live it just as I have done. I neither complain of the past, nor do I fear the future.
It happens as one sees in cages: the birds which are outside despair of ever getting in, and those within are equally desirous of getting out.
Such an one has been, as it were, miraculous in the world, in whom his wife and valet have seen nothing even remarkable; few men have been admired by their servants.
The thing I fear most is fear.
Essais (1571)
Adrian, the Emperor, exclaimed incessantly, when dying, "That the crowd of physicians had killed him."
Amongst so many borrowed things, am glad if I can steal one, disguising and altering it for some new service.
It is the part of cowardice, not of courage, to go and crouch in a hole under a massive tomb, to avoid the blows of fortune.
Essais (1571)
I have here only made a nosegay of culled flowers, and have brought nothing of my own but the thread that ties them together.
Essais (1571)
'Tis so much to be a king, that he only is so by being so.
All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.
Essais (1571)
To which we may add this other Aristotelian consideration, that he who confers a benefit on any one loves him better than he is beloved by him again.
Essais (1571)
Arts and sciences are not cast in a mould, but are formed and perfected by degrees, by often handling and polishing, as bears leisurely lick their cubs into form.
Essais (1571)
If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than it was because he was he, and I was I.
Essais (1571)
There were never in the world two opinions alike, any more than two hairs or two grains. Their most universal quality is diversity.
Essais (1571)
She [virtue] requires a rough and stormy passage; she will have either outward difficulties to wrestle with, ... or internal difficulties.
Essais (1571)
As one might say of me that I have only made here a collection of other people's flowers, having provided nothing of my own but the cord to bind them together.
Let us a little permit Nature to take her own way; she better understands her own affairs than we.
I believe it to be true that Dreams are the true Interpreters of our Inclinations; but there is Art required to sort and understand them.
The thing in the world I am most afraid of is fear, and with good reason; that passion alone, in the trouble of it, exceeding all other accidents.
A man may be humble through vainglory.
Essais (1571)
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