Michel de Montaigne Quotes
Michel de Montaigne was a French Renaissance philosopher and the inventor of the modern essay. Withdrawing in middle age to his tower library, he composed the three books of the Essais, an unprecedented program of self-examination conducted in dialogue with Greek and Roman authors. The quotes below are attributed to Michel de Montaigne, organized by topic.
Browse Michel de Montaigne by topic
Michel de Montaigne on God
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“We are no nearer heaven on the top of Mount Cenis than at the bottom of the sea; take the distance with your astrolabe. They debase God even to the carnal knowledge of women, to so many times, and so many generations.”
Book II | Ch. 12 -
“Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm , and yet he will be making gods by dozens.”
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919) | Book II, Ch. 12. Apology for Raimond Sebond
Michel de Montaigne on Justice
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“There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.”
Book III, Ch. 9. Of Vanity -
“I will follow the good side right to the fire, but not into it if I can help it.”
Book III | Ch. 1
Michel de Montaigne on Knowledge
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“What do I know?”
Ch. 16. Of Glory (tr. Cotton, rev. W. Carew Hazlitt, 1877) -
“Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.”
... il n'est rien creu si fermement que ce qu'on sçait le moins, ... -
“Je veux qu'on me voit en ma façon simple, naturelle, et ordinaire, sans étude et artifice; car c'est moi que je peins...Je suis moi-même la matière de mon livre.”
I want to be seen here in my simple, natural, ordinary fashion, without straining or artifice; for it is myself that I portray...I am myself the matter of my book. | To the Reader (tr. Donald M. Frame, 1957) -
“To the Reader (tr. Donald M. Frame, 1957)”
Je veux qu'on me voit en ma façon simple, naturelle, et ordinaire, sans étude et artifice; car c'est moi que je peins...Je suis moi-même la matière de mon livre. -
“Certes, c'est un subject merveilleusement vain, divers, et ondoyant, que l'homme. Il est malaisé d'y fonder jugement constant et uniforme.”
Truly man is a marvellously vain, diverse, and undulating object. It is hard to found any constant and uniform judgement on him. | Ch. 1. That Men by various Ways arrive at the same End (tr. Donald M. Frame) Man in sooth is a marvellous, vain, fickle, and unstable subject. (tr. Cotton, rev. W. Hazlitt, 1842) -
“Truly man is a marvellously vain, diverse, and undulating object. It is hard to found any constant and uniform judgement on him.”
Certes, c'est un subject merveilleusement vain, divers, et ondoyant, que l'homme. Il est malaisé d'y fonder jugement constant et uniforme. -
“Ch. 1. That Men by various Ways arrive at the same End (tr. Donald M. Frame) Man in sooth is a marvellous, vain, fickle, and unstable subject. (tr. Cotton, rev. W. Hazlitt, 1842)”
Certes, c'est un subject merveilleusement vain, divers, et ondoyant, que l'homme. Il est malaisé d'y fonder jugement constant et uniforme. -
“All passions that suffer themselves to be relished and digested are but moderate.”
Ch. 2. Of Sorrow (tr. Cotton, rev. W. Hazlitt, 1842) -
“Ch. 2. Of Sorrow (tr. Cotton, rev. W. Hazlitt, 1842)”
All passions that suffer themselves to be relished and digested are but moderate. -
“Ch. 9. Of Liars (tr. Cotton, rev. W. Carew Hazlitt, 1877)”
A strong memory is commonly coupled with infirm judgment. -
“We are, I know not how, double in ourselves, which is the cause that what we believe we do not believe, and cannot disengage ourselves from what we condemn.”
Book I | Ch. 16. Of Glory (tr. Cotton, rev. W. Carew Hazlitt, 1877) -
“Every other knowledge is harmful to him who does not have knowledge of goodness .”
Book I | Ch. 25 -
“Since I would rather make of him an able man than a learned man, I would also urge that care be taken to choose a guide with a well-made rather than a well-filled head.”
Book I | Ch. 26. On the Education of Children -
“We are born to inquire after truth; it belongs to a greater power to possess it. It is not, as Democritus said, hid in the bottom of the deeps, but rather elevated to an infinite height in the divine knowledge.”
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919) | Book III, Ch. 8. Of the Art of Conversation -
“I moreover affirm that our wisdom itself, and wisest consultations, for the most part commit themselves to the conduct of chance.”
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919) | Book III, Ch. 8. Of the Art of Conversation
Michel de Montaigne on Life
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“On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.”
Si, avons nous beau monter sur des échasses, car sur des échasses encore faut-il marcher de nos jambes. Et au plus élevé trône du monde, si ne sommes assis que sur notre cul. -
“There is, nevertheless, a certain respect and a general duty of humanity that ties us, not only to beasts that have life and sense, but even to trees and plants.”
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919) | Book II, Ch. 11. Of Cruelty -
“Even opinion is of force enough to make itself to be espoused at the expense of life.”
Book I | Book I, Ch. 40. Of Good and Evil (tr. Cotton, rev. W. Hazlitt, 1842) -
“There is no man so good that if he placed all his actions and thoughts under the scrutiny of the laws , he would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.”
Book III
Michel de Montaigne on Love
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“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.”
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919) | Book II, Ch. 8. Of the Affections of Fathers
Michel de Montaigne on Mind
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“The thing I fear most is fear.”
C'est ce de quoi j'ai le plus de peur que la peur. -
Attributed to Michel de Montaigne:
“He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.”
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“A strong memory is commonly coupled with infirm judgment.”
Ch. 9. Of Liars (tr. Cotton, rev. W. Carew Hazlitt, 1877) -
“It is not without good reason said, that he who has not a good memory should never take upon him the trade of lying.”
Book I | Ch. 9. Of Liars (tr. Cotton, rev. W. Hazlitt, 1842) -
“The souls of emperors and cobblers are cast in the same mold...The same reason that makes us wrangle with a neighbor creates a war betwixt princes.”
Book II | Ch. 12 (tr. Cotton, rev. W. Carew Hazlitt, 1877) -
“Non pudeat dicere, quod non pudet sentire : "Let no man be ashamed to speak what he is not ashamed to think."”
Book III | Book III, Ch. 4 [2]
Michel de Montaigne on Nature
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“I want to be seen here in my simple, natural, ordinary fashion, without straining or artifice; for it is myself that I portray...I am myself the matter of my book.”
Je veux qu'on me voit en ma façon simple, naturelle, et ordinaire, sans étude et artifice; car c'est moi que je peins...Je suis moi-même la matière de mon livre. -
“The laws of conscience, which we pretend to be derived from nature, proceed from custom.”
Book I | Ch. 22. Of Custom (tr. Cotton, rev. W. Hazlitt, 1842) -
“As to fidelity, there is no animal in the world so treacherous as man. Our histories have recorded the violent pursuits that dogs have made after the murderers of their masters.”
Book II | Ch. 12 (tr. Cotton, rev. W. Carew Hazlitt, 1877) -
“Physicians have this advantage: the sun lights their success and the earth covers their failures.”
Book II | Ch. 37
Michel de Montaigne on Politics
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“It would be better to have no laws at all than to have them in such profusion as we do.”
Book III | Ch. 13
Michel de Montaigne on Time
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“'T is one and the same Nature that rolls on her course, and whoever has sufficiently considered the present state of things might certainly conclude as to both the future and the past.”
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919) | Book II, Ch. 12. Apology for Raimond Sebond -
“I live from day to day, and content myself with having enough to meet my present and ordinary needs; for the extraordinary, all the provision in the world could not suffice.”
Book I | Ch. 14 -
“Live as long as you please, you will strike nothing off the time you will have to spend dead.”
Book I | Ch. 20. Of the Force of Imagination
Michel de Montaigne on Truth
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“For truth itself does not have the privilege to be employed at any time and in every way; its use, noble as it is, has its circumscriptions and limits.”
Book III | Ch. 13 -
“The mariner of old said to Neptune in a great tempest, "O God! thou mayest save me if thou wilt, and if thou wilt thou mayest destroy me; but whether or no, I will steer my rudder true."”
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919) | Book II, Ch. 16. Of Glory -
“I speak the truth, not my fill of it, but as much as I dare speak; and I dare to do so a little more as I grow old.”
Book III | Ch. 2 -
“Apollo said that every one's true worship was that which he found in use in the place where he chanced to be.”
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919) | Book II, Ch. 12. Apology for Raimond Sebond -
“I speak truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare; and I dare a little the more as I grow older.”
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919) | Book iii. Chap 2. Of Repentance
Michel de Montaigne on Virtue
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“Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself.”
Ch. 10. Of Managing the Will -
“Plato says, "'Tis to no purpose for a sober man to knock at the door of the Muses;" and Aristotle says "that no excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of folly."”
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919) | Book II, Ch. 2. Of Drunkenness -
“Virtue refuses facility for her companion ... the easy, gentle, and sloping path that guides the footsteps of a good natural disposition is not the path of true virtue. It demands a rough and thorny road.”
Book II | Ch. 11. Of Cruelty (tr. Donald M. Frame) -
“She [virtue] requires a rough and stormy passage; she will have either outward difficulties to wrestle with, ... or internal difficulties.”
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919) | Book II, Ch. 11. Of Cruelty