Michel de Montaigne Quotes on Virtue
Michel de Montaigne's account of virtue, reflected in the quotes gathered here, is realistic, demanding, and free of pretension. He held no illusions about human goodness, observing that there is no man so good who, judged by the strict letter of the laws, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life. Genuine virtue, for Montaigne, is not the easy product of a pleasant temperament: it refuses facility for her companion and demands a rough and thorny road of difficulty overcome. He also insisted that virtue requires keeping a core of the self in reserve, counselling that one lend oneself to others but give oneself to oneself, and he punctured the pretensions of rank with the reminder that on the highest throne in the world we still sit only on our own bottom. Drawn from the Essais, these passages present virtue as effortful, honest self-possession.
Quotes
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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. -
“Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself.”
Ch. 10. Of Managing the Will -
“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 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 -
“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