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Michel de Montaigne

Michel de Montaigne Quotes

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Famous Michel de Montaigne Quotes

“The whole idea we have for their chastity is ridiculous. They would have to become numb and invisible to please us. I don't know whether the exploits of Alexander and Caesar really surpass the resolution of a beautiful young woman, bred up in the light and commerce of our society, who still keeps herself whole. There is no doing so hard as not doing.”

KnowsStillsIdeasHardWholeLightBeautifulYoungPleaseRidiculousInvisibleOur SocietyResolutionCommerceYoung WomenExploitsNumbChastity
Book:Autobiography: Comprising the Life of the Wisest Man of His Times ...
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“There is nothing of evil in life for him who rightly comprehends that death is no evil; to know how to die delivers us from all subjection and constraint.”

KnowsDeathDiesEvilKnow HowConstraintsSubjection
Book:Annotated Essays of Michel de Montaigne with English Grammar Exercises: by Michel de Montaigne (Author), Robert Powell (Editor)
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“We hold death, poverty, and grief for our principal enemies; but this death, which some repute the most dreadful of all dreadful things, who does not know that others call it the only secure harbor from the storm and tempests of life, the sovereign good of nature, the sole support of liberty, and the common and sudden remedy of all evils?”

KnowsDoeDeathEvilCommonGriefLibertyEnemyPovertySupportStormSecureSoleRemedyPrincipalSovereignHarborsTempest
Book:Essays of Michael Seigneur de Montaigne: In Three Books with Marginal Notes and Quotations. And an Account of the Author's Life. With a Short Character of the Author and Translator,
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“Who is only good that others may know it, and that he may be the better esteemed when 'tis known, who will do well but upon condition that his virtue may be known to men, is one from whom much service is not to be expected.”

KnowsMenWellsMayKnownVirtueConditionsGoodnessExpected
Book:Works: Comprising His Essays, Letters, and Journey Through Germany and Italy; with Notes, Notices, Etc
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“Can anything be imagined so ridiculous that this miserable and wretched creature, who is not so much as master of himself, but subject to the injuries of all things, should call himself master and emperor of the world, of which he has not power to know the least part, much less to command the whole?”

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Book:The Works of Michael de Montaigne: Comprising His Essays, Letters, and Journey Through Germany and Italy
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“To begin depriving death of its greatest advantage over us, let us adopt a way clean contrary to that common one; let us deprive death of its strangeness, let us frequent it, let us get used to it; let us have nothing more often in mind than death... We do not know where death awaits us: so let us wait for it everywhere." "To practice death is to practice freedom. A man who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave.”

KnowsMenWayMindUsedDiesWaitingCommonPracticeAdvantageCleanSlaveContraryStrangenessBe A SlaveDepriving
Book:The Essays of Michel de Montaigne
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“Since philosophy is the art which teaches us how to live, and since children need to learn it as much as we do at other ages, why do we not instruct them in it? .. But in truth I know nothing about the philosophy of education except this: that the greatest and the most important difficulty known to human learning seems to lie in that area which treats how to bring up children and how to educate them.”

KnowsNeedsHumansChildrenArtImportantPhilosophySeemsAgeLyingKnownTeachAreasTreatsDifficultyEducationalEducatePhilosophy Of Education
Author:Michel de Montaigne
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“.. since it was true that study, even when done properly, can only teach us what wisdom, right conduct and determination consist in, they wanted to put their children directly in touch with actual cases, teaching them not by hearsay but by actively assaying them, vigorously molding and forming them not merely by word and precept but chiefly by deeds and examples, so that wisdom should not be something which the soul knows but the soul's very essence and temperament, not something acquired but a natural property.”

KnowsShouldChildrenSoulDoneWantedNaturalTeachCasesStudyTeachingExampleDeterminationEssencePropertyDeedsEducationalTemperamentHearsayMoldingRight Conduct
Book:The Essays of Michel de Montaigne
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“Traveling through the world produces a marvelous clarity in the judgment of men. We are all of us confined and enclosed within ourselves, and see no farther than the end of our nose. This great world is a mirror where we must see ourselves in order to know ourselves. There are so many different tempers, so many different points of view, judgments, opinions, laws and customs to teach us to judge wisely on our own, and to teach our judgment to recognize its imperfection and natural weakness.”

KnowsMenWorldDifferentEndsLawOrderNaturalViewsOpinionTeachProduceJudgingJudgmentWeaknessMirrorsPoint Of ViewClarityNosesCustomsImperfectionTemperMarvelousConfinedDifferent Points Of View
Author:Michel de Montaigne
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