Quotes from bookEssays
The Essays of Michel de Montaigne are contained in three books and 107 chapters of varying length. They were originally written in Middle French and were originally published in the Kingdom of France. Montaigne's stated design in writing, publishing and revising the Essays over the period from approximately 1570 to 1592 was to record "some traits of my character and of my humours." The Essays were first published in 1580 and cover a wide range of topics.
“The sage says that all that is under heaven incurs the same law and the same fate.”
Michel De Montaigne book Essays
Book II, Ch. 12
Essais (1595), Book II
“The laws of conscience, which we pretend to be derived from nature, proceed from custom.”
Michel De Montaigne book Essays
Book I, Ch. 22. Of Custom
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“Like rowers, who advance backward.”
Michel De Montaigne book Essays
Book III, Ch. 1. Of Profit and Honesty
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“We must not attach knowledge to the mind, we have to incorporate it there.”
Michel De Montaigne book Essays
Book I, Ch. 25
Essais (1595), Book I
Michel De Montaigne book Essays
Book II, Ch. 11. Of Cruelty
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Michel De Montaigne book Essays
Il n'est si homme de bien, qu'il mette à l'examen des loix toutes ses actions et pensées, qui ne soit pendable dix fois en sa vie.
Book III, Ch. 9
Essais (1595), Book III
Variant: 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.
“Man is forming thousands of ridiculous relations between himself and God.”
Michel De Montaigne book Essays
Book II, Ch. 12
Essais (1595), Book II
“How many worthy men have we seen survive their own reputation!”
Michel De Montaigne book Essays
Book II, Ch. 16. Of Glory
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Variant: How many valiant men we have seen to survive their own reputation!
Michel De Montaigne book Essays
Book II, Ch. 8. Of the Affections of Fathers
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.”
Michel De Montaigne book Essays
Book I, Ch. 30. Of Cannibals
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“Few men have been admired by their own domestics.”
Michel De Montaigne book Essays
Book iii. Chap 2. Of Repentance
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Variant: Few men have been admired by their own households.
“Saturninus said, "Comrades, you have lost a good captain to make him an ill general."”
Michel De Montaigne book Essays
Book III, Ch. 9. Of Vanity
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Michel De Montaigne book Essays
Book III, Ch. 13. Of Experience
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“When I play with my cat, who knows if I am not a pastime to her more than she is to me?”
Michel De Montaigne book Essays
Quand je me joue à ma chatte, qui sait si elle passe son temps de moi, plus que je ne fais d'elle. <br class="br">Book II, Ch. 12 <br class="br">The 1595 edition adds: “We entertain each other with reciprocal monkey tricks. If I have my time to begin or to refuse, so has she hers.” As quoted in Jacques Derrida, The Animal That Therefore I Am https://books.google.it/books?id=y8Drc-QghEIC&pg=PT21, trans. David Wills, Fordham University Press, 2008. <br class="br">Essais (1595), Book II
“He who does not give himself leisure to be thirsty cannot take pleasure in drinking.”
Michel De Montaigne book Essays
Book I, Ch. 42
Essais (1595), Book I
