Quotes from book
Essays

Michel De Montaigne

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.

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“He who remembers the evils he has undergone, and those that have threatened him, and the slight causes that have changed him from one state to another, prepares himself in that way for future changes and for recognizing his condition. The life of Caesar has no more to show us than our own; an emperor's or an ordinary man's, it is still a life subject to all human accidents.”

Michel De Montaigne book Essays

Book III, Ch. 13
Essais (1595), Book III

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“Malice sucks up the greatest part of its own venom, and poisons itself.”

Michel De Montaigne book Essays

Of Repentance, Book III, Ch. 2 http://books.google.com/books?id=jm8-AAAAYAAJ&q=%22Malice+sucks+up+the+greatest+part+of+its+own+venom+and+poisons+itself%22&pg=PA246#v=onepage
Essais (1595), Book III

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“[I]n my country, when they would say a man has no sense, they say, such an one has no memory; and when I complain of the defect of mine, they do not believe me, and reprove me, as though I accused myself for a fool: not discerning the difference betwixt memory and understanding, which is to make matters still worse for me. But they do me wrong; for experience, rather, daily shows us, on the contrary, that a strong memory is commonly coupled with infirm judgment.”

Michel De Montaigne book Essays

Book I, Ch. 9
Essais (1595), Book I

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“There must then be something that is better, and that must be God. When you see a stately and stupendous edifice, though you do not know who is the owner of it, you would yet conclude it was not built for rats. And this divine structure, that we behold of the celestial palace, have we not reason to believe that it is the residence of some possessor, who is much greater than we?”

Michel De Montaigne book Essays

Book II, Ch. 12
Essais (1595), Book II

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“Truly man is a marvellously vain, diverse, and undulating object. It is hard to found any constant and uniform judgement on him.”

Michel De Montaigne book Essays

Certes, c'est un subject merveilleusement vain, divers, et ondoyant, que l'homme. Il est malaisé d'y fonder jugement constant et uniforme.
Book I, Ch. 1
Essais (1595), Book I

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“Some impose upon the world that they believe that which they do not; others, more in number, make themselves believe that they believe, not being able to penetrate into what it is to believe.”

Michel De Montaigne book Essays

Book II, Ch. 12. Apology for Raimond Sebond
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Michel De Montaigne photo

“And not to serve for a table-talk.”

Michel De Montaigne book Essays

Book II, Ch. 3. The Custom of the Isle of Cea
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

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“Not because Socrates said so, but because it is in truth my own disposition — and perchance to some excess — I look upon all men as my compatriots, and embrace a Pole as a Frenchman, making less account of the national than of the universal and common bond.”

Michel De Montaigne book Essays

Book III, Ch. 9
Essais (1595), Book III

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“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.”

Michel De Montaigne book Essays

Book II, Ch. 11. Of Cruelty
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

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“I am angry at the custom of forbidding children to call their father by the name of father, and to enjoin them another, as more full of respect and reverence, as if nature had not sufficiently provided for our authority. We call Almighty God Father, and disdain to have our children call us so. I have reformed this error in my family.—[As did Henry IV. of France]—And 'tis also folly and injustice to deprive children, when grown up, of familiarity with their father, and to carry a scornful and austere countenance toward them, thinking by that to keep them in awe and obedience; for it is a very idle farce that, instead of producing the effect designed, renders fathers distasteful, and, which is worse, ridiculous to their own children.”

Michel De Montaigne book Essays

Book II, Ch. 8. On the affections of fathers to their children
Essais (1595), Book II

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“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."”

Michel De Montaigne book Essays

Book II, Ch. 16. Of Glory
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

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“It is a thorny undertaking, and more so than it seems, to follow a movement so wandering as that of our mind, to penetrate the opaque depths of its innermost folds, to pick out and immobilize the innumerable flutterings that agitate it.”

Michel De Montaigne book Essays

C'est une épineuse entreprise, et plus qu'il ne semble, de suivre une allure si vagabonde que celle de nôtre esprit; de pénétrer les profondeurs opaques de ses replis internes; de choisir et arrêter tant de menus de ses agitations.
Book II, Ch. 6
Essais (1595), Book II

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“All of the days go toward death and the last one arrives there.”

Michel De Montaigne book Essays

Book I, Ch. 20
Essais (1595), Book I

Michel De Montaigne photo

“One may be humble out of pride.”

Michel De Montaigne book Essays

Book II, Ch. 17. Of Presumption
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

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“Plato says, "'T is 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."”

Michel De Montaigne book Essays

Book II, Ch. 2. Of Drunkenness
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

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“Of all human and ancient opinions concerning religion, that seems to me the most likely and most excusable, that acknowledged God as an incomprehensible power, the original and preserver of all things, all goodness, all perfection, receiving and taking in good part the honour and reverence that man paid him, under what method, name, or ceremonies soever”

Michel De Montaigne book Essays

Book II, Ch. 12
Essais (1595), Book II

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“My appetite comes to me while eating.”

Michel De Montaigne book Essays

Book III, Ch. 9. Of Vanity
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

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“The middle sort of historians (of which the most part are) spoil all; they will chew our meat for us.”

Michel De Montaigne book Essays

Book II, Ch. 10. Of Books
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

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“When I play with my cat, who knows whether I do not make her more sport than she makes me?”

Michel De Montaigne book Essays

Book II, Ch. 12. Apology for Raimond Sebond
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Michel De Montaigne photo

“All the opinions in the world point out that pleasure is our aim.”

Michel De Montaigne book Essays

Book I, Ch. 20
Essais (1595), Book I