Michel de Montaigne Quotes on Knowledge
Michel de Montaigne was a French Renaissance philosopher and the inventor of the modern essay. This page collects quotes attributed to Michel de Montaigne on the topic of knowledge, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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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.