“He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.”
Book III, Ch. 13
Attributed
Source: The Complete Essays
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Michel De Montaigne
Michel De Montaigne:
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Famous Michel De Montaigne Quotes
“The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.”
La plus grande chose du monde, c'est de savoir être à soi.
Book I, Ch. 39
Essais (1595), Book I
Source: The Complete Essays
“On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.”
Book III, Ch. 13
Essais (1595), Book III
Source: The Complete Essays
Context: No matter that we may mount on stilts, we still must walk on our own legs. And on the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.
Michel De Montaigne Quotes about God
“Man is certainly crazy. He could not make a mite, and he makes gods by the dozen.”
L'homme est bien insensé. Il ne saurait forger un ciron, et forge des Dieux à douzaines.
Book II, Ch. 12
Essais (1595), Book II
Source: The Complete Essays
Book II, Ch. 8. On the affections of fathers to their children
Essais (1595), Book II
Book II, Ch. 12
Essais (1595), Book II
Book II, Ch. 12
Essais (1595), Book II
Book III, Ch. 12 : Of Physiognomy
Essais (1595), Book III
Book II, Ch. 16. Of Glory
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Michel De Montaigne: Trending quotes
Book II, Ch. 10. Of Books
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Michel De Montaigne Quotes
“There is a sort of gratification in doing good which makes us rejoice in ourselves.”
Book III, Ch. 2
Attributed
“I quote others only in order the better to express myself.”
Source: The Complete Essays
Book I, Ch. 25
Essais (1595), Book I
Context: To call out for the hand of the enemy is a rather extreme measure, yet a better one, I think, than to remain in continual fever over an accident that has no remedy. But since all the precautions that a man can take are full of uneasiness and uncertainty, it is better to prepare with fine assurance for the worst that can happen, and derive some consolation from the fact that we are not sure that it will happen.
“They make me hate things that are likely, when they would impose them upon me as infallible.”
Book II, Ch. 12: Apology for Raimond Sebond
Essais (1595), Book II
Context: Great abuses in the world are begotten, or, to speak more boldly, all the abuses of the world are begotten, by our being taught to be afraid of professing our ignorance, and that we are bound to accept all things we are not able to refute: we speak of all things by precepts and decisions. The style at Rome was that even that which a witness deposed to having seen with his own eyes, and what a judge determined with his most certain knowledge, was couched in this form of speaking: “it seems to me.” They make me hate things that are likely, when they would impose them upon me as infallible.
Book II, Ch. 12: Apology for Raimond Sebond
Essais (1595), Book II
Context: Great abuses in the world are begotten, or, to speak more boldly, all the abuses of the world are begotten, by our being taught to be afraid of professing our ignorance, and that we are bound to accept all things we are not able to refute: we speak of all things by precepts and decisions. The style at Rome was that even that which a witness deposed to having seen with his own eyes, and what a judge determined with his most certain knowledge, was couched in this form of speaking: “it seems to me.” They make me hate things that are likely, when they would impose them upon me as infallible.
“A little of all things, but nothing of everything, after the French manner.”
On the education of children; Book I, Chapter 26
Essais (1595), Book I
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.
Book I (1580), To the Reader
Essais (1595), Book I
Book II, Ch. 12
Essais (1595), Book II
Context: We are brought to a belief of God either by reason or by force. Atheism being a proposition as unnatural as monstrous, difficult also and hard to establish in the human understanding, how arrogant soever, there are men enough seen, out of vanity and pride, to be the authors of extraordinary and reforming opinions, and outwardly to affect the profession of them; who, if they are such fools, have, nevertheless, not the power to plant them in their own conscience. Yet will they not fail to lift up their hands towards heaven if you give them a good thrust with a sword in the breast, and when fear or sickness has abated and dulled the licentious fury of this giddy humour they will easily re-unite, and very discreetly suffer themselves to be reconciled to the public faith and examples.
“God's justice and His power are inseparable; 'tis in vain we invoke His power in an unjust cause.”
Book I, Ch. 56. Of Prayers
Essais (1595), Book I
Context: God's justice and His power are inseparable; 'tis in vain we invoke His power in an unjust cause. We are to have our souls pure and clean, at that moment at least wherein we pray to Him, and purified from all vicious passions; otherwise we ourselves present Him the rods wherewith to chastise us; instead of repairing anything we have done amiss, we double the wickedness and the offence when we offer to Him, to whom we are to sue for pardon, an affection full of irreverence and hatred. Which makes me not very apt to applaud those whom I observe to be so frequent on their knees, if the actions nearest to the prayer do not give me some evidence of amendment and reformation
Attributed
“Those who have compared our life to a dream were right…”
Book II, Ch. 12
Variant translation: They who have compared our lives to a dream were, perhaps, more in the right than they were aware of. When we dream, the soul lives, works, and exercises all its faculties, neither more nor less than when awake; but more largely and obscurely, yet not so much, neither, that the difference should be as great as betwixt night and the meridian brightness of the sun, but as betwixt night and shade; there she sleeps, here she slumbers; but, whether more or less, ‘tis still dark, and Cimmerian darkness. We wake sleeping, and sleep waking.
Essais (1595), Book II
Context: Those who have compared our life to a dream were right... We are sleeping awake, and waking asleep.
“If I speak of myself in different ways, that is because I look at myself in different ways.”
Source: The Complete Essays
“Learned we may be with another man's learning: we can only be wise with wisdom of our own.”
Source: The Complete Essays
Si on me presse de dire pourquoi je l'aimais, je sens que cela ne se peut exprimer qu'en répondant: parce que c'était lui; parce que c'était moi.
Variants: 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.
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.
Book I, Ch. 28
Essais (1595), Book I
Source: The Complete Essays
Book III, Ch. 13
Attributed
Source: The Complete Essays
“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, ...
Book I, Ch. 31
Essais (1595), Book I
Variant: Nothing is so firmly believed as what is least known.
Source: The Complete Essays
“How many things served us yesterday for articles of faith, which today are fables for us?”
Combien de choses nous servoyent hier d’articles de foy, qui nous sont fables aujourd’huy?
Book I, Ch. 27
Essais (1595), Book I
Source: The Complete Essays
“Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself.”
Source: Essais (1595), Book III, Chapter X. Of Managing the Will. End of First Paragraph.
“Let us give Nature a chance; she knows her business better than we do.”
Book III, Ch. 13
Essais (1595), Book III
Source: Montaigne: Essays
Book iii. Chap 2. Of Repentance
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“Off I go, rummaging about in books for sayings which please me.”
Source: The Complete Essays
“The greater part of the world's troubles are due to questions of grammar.”
Source: The Complete Essays
“My art and profession is to live.”
Book II, Ch. 6
Essais (1595), Book II
Variant: My trade and my art is living.
“The most fruitful and natural exercise for our minds is, in my opinion, conversation.”
Source: The Essays: A Selection
“Every man has within himself the entire human condition”
Book III, Ch. 2
Essais (1595), Book III
Variant: Every man bears the whole stamp of the human condition.
Book III, Ch. 5
Attributed
Source: The Complete Essays
“Que sçais-je?" (What do I know?)”
The notion of skepticism is most clearly understood by asking this question.
Book II, Ch. 12
Essais (1595), Book II
Variant: What know I? (or What do I know?)
“Why do people respect the package rather than the man?”
Source: The Complete Essays
“No wind favors he who has no destined port.”
Book II, Ch. 1
Attributed
Variant: No wind serves him who addresses his voyage to no certain port.
Source: The Complete Essays
“I have seen no more evident monstrosity and miracle in the world than myself.”
Book III, Ch. 11
Essais (1595), Book III
“No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately.”
Book III, Ch. 1
Attributed
Source: The Complete Essays
“There is as much difference between us and ourselves as between us and others.”
Book II (1580), Ch. 1
Essais (1595), Book II
