Quotes by Michel de Montaigne

About Michel de Montaigne:

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne is noted for its merging of casual anecdotes and autobiography with serious intellectual insight; his massive volume Essais (translated literally as "Attempts" or "Trials") contains 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, Stefan Zweig, Eric Hoffer, Isaac Asimov, and possibly on the later works of William Shakespeare.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Pride and curiosity are the two scourges of our souls. The latter prompts us to poke our noses into everything, and the former forbids us to leave anything unresolved and undecided.

Michel de Montaigne

Excellent memories are often coupled with feeble judgments.

Michel de Montaigne

We trouble our life by thoughts about death, and our death by thoughts about life.

Michel de Montaigne

Age imprints more wrinkles in the mind than it does on the face.

Michel de Montaigne

There is no pleasure to me without communication: there is not so much as a sprightly thought comes into my mind that it does not grieve me to have produced alone, and that I have no one to tell it to.

Michel de Montaigne

My trade and art is to live.

Michel de Montaigne

Can anything be imagined so ridiculous, that this miserable and wretched creature [man], who is not so much as master of himself, but subject to the injuries of all things, should call himself master and emperor of the world, of which he has not powe...

Michel de Montaigne

To forbid us anything is to make us have a mind for it.

Michel de Montaigne

Let us give Nature a chance; she knows her business better than we do.

Michel de Montaigne

When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind.

Michel de Montaigne

We take our fetters with us; our freedom is not total: we still turn our gaze towards the things we have left behind; our imagination is full of them.

Michel de Montaigne

A man with nothing to lend should refrain from borrowing.

Michel de Montaigne

Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself.

Michel de Montaigne

Stubborn and ardent clinging to one's opinion is the best proof of stupidity.

Michel de Montaigne

There is hardly less torment in running a family than in running a country.

Michel de Montaigne

Whether we are running our home or studying or hunting or following any other sport, we should go to the very boundaries of pleasure but take good care not to be involved beyond the point where it begins to be mingled with pain.

Michel de Montaigne

From books all I seek is to give myself pleasure by an honourable pastime: or if I do study, I seek only that branch of learning which deals with knowing myself and which teaches me how to live and die well...

Michel de Montaigne

There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees.

Michel de Montaigne

Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.

Michel de Montaigne

I care not so much what I am to others as what I am to myself. I will be rich by myself, and not by borrowing.

Michel de Montaigne

Author Bio

  • NameMichel de Montaigne
  • Description(1533-1592) French author, humanistic philosopher, statesman
  • AliasesMichel Eyquem de Montaigne
  • BornFebruary 28, 1533
  • DiedSeptember 13, 1592
  • CountryFrance
  • ProfessionPhilosopher; Writer; Jurist; Essayist; Autobiographer
  • WorksEssays