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

The world is but a perpetual see-saw.

Michel de Montaigne

It is an absolute and virtually divine perfection to know how to enjoy our being rightfully.

Michel de Montaigne

If ordinary people complain that I speak too much of myself, I complain that they do not even think of themselves.

Michel de Montaigne

I have often seen people uncivil by too much civility, and tiresome in their courtesy.

Michel de Montaigne

Any person of honor chooses rather to lose his honor than to lose his conscience.

Michel de Montaigne

The worst of my actions or conditions seem not so ugly unto me as I find it both ugly and base not to dare to avouch for them.

Michel de Montaigne

If a man urge me to tell wherefore I loved him, I feel it cannot be expressed but by answering: Because it was he, because it was myself.

Michel de Montaigne

If a man should importune me to give a reason why I loved him, I find it could no otherwise be expressed, than by making answer: because it was he, because it was I.

Michel de Montaigne

There is no passion so much transports the sincerity of judgement as doth anger

Michel de Montaigne

No passion disturbs the soundness of our judgement as anger does.

Michel de Montaigne

The least strained and most natural ways of the soul are the most beautiful; the best occupations are the least forced.

Michel de Montaigne

Nichts wird so fest geglaubt wie das, was wir am wenigsten wissen.

Michel de Montaigne

I enjoy books as misers enjoy treasures, because I know I can enjoy them whenever I please.

Michel de Montaigne

I do not care so much what I am to others as I care what I am to myself.

Michel de Montaigne

We need very strong ears to hear ourselves judged frankly, and because there are few who can endure frank criticism without being stung by it, those who venture to criticize us perform a remarkable act of friendship, for to undertake to wound or offe...

Michel de Montaigne

I know not what quintessence of all this mixture, which, seizing my whole will, carried it to plunge and lose itself in his, and that having seized his whole will, brought it back with equal concurrence and appetite to plunge and lose itself in mine.

Michel de Montaigne

I know that the arms of friendship are long enough to reach from the one end of the world to the other

Michel de Montaigne

Though the ancient poet in Plutarch tells us we must not trouble the gods with our affairs because they take no heed of our angers and disputes, we can never enough decry the disorderly sallies of our minds.

Michel de Montaigne

There is indeed a certain sense of gratification when we do a good deed that gives us inward satisfaction, and a generous pride that accompanies a good conscience…These testimonies of a good conscience are pleasant; and such a natural pleasure is v...

Michel de Montaigne

We need but little learning to live happily.

Michel de Montaigne

We can be knowledgeable with another man's knowledge, but we can't be wise with another man's wisdom.

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