Quotessence
Home / Authors / Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne

Michel de Montaigne Quotes

Writer

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenIfsShouldKnowsWorldMindOpinionSoulMayDoePleasureReasonLifeBookGivingVirtueWellsJudgmentLittlesSelf

Famous Michel de Montaigne Quotes

“If these Essays were worthy of being judged, it might fall out, in my opinion, that they would not find much favour, either with common and vulgar minds, or with uncommon and eminent ones: the former would not find enough in them, the latter would find too much; they might manage to live somewhere in the middle region.”

IfsMindEnoughMightFallCommonOpinionToo MuchMiddleJudgmentWorthyManageFormerLatterRegionsJudgedModerationFavourVulgarEssaysUncommonBeing Judged
Author:Michel de Montaigne
Create image

“Learning is not to be tacked to the mind, but we must fuse and blend them together, not merely giving the mind a slight tincture, but a thorough and perfect dye. And if we perceive no evident change and improvement, it would be better to leave it alone; learning is a dangerous weapon, and apt to wound its master if it be wielded by a feeble hand, and by one not well acquainted with its use.”

IfsGivingMindWellsUseHandsWould BeTogetherPerfectLearningDangerousMastersWeaponsWoundsImprovementPerceiveEvidentThoroughFuse
Author:Michel de Montaigne
Create image

“I enter into discussion and argument with great freedom and ease, inasmuch as opinion finds me in a bad soil to penetrate and take deep root in. No propositions astonish me, no belief offends me, whatever contrast it offers to my own. There is no fancy so frivolous and so extravagant that it does not seem to me quite suitable to the production of the human mind.”

MindHumansDoeSeemsBeliefMy OwnOpinionOffersArgumentRootsProductionsEaseDiscussionFancySoilHuman MindContrastPropositionsPenetrateFind MeSuitableExtravagantFrivolousGreat FreedomDeep Roots
Author:Michel de Montaigne
Create image

“There is no pleasure to me without communication: there is not so much as a sprightly thought comes into my mind that it does not grieve me to have produced alone, and that I have no one to tell it to.”

InspirationalMindDoePleasureCommunicationGrievingWithout Communication
Book:The Complete Works of Michael de Montaigne; Comprising; the Essays, Translated by Cotton; the Letters; the Journey Into Germany and Italy, Now First Translated; a Life by the Editor; Notes: ... Critical Opinions; ... the Éloges of MM. Jay and Villemain; a
Create image

“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
Create image

“What enriches language is its being handled and exploited by beautiful minds-not so much by making innovations as by expanding it through more vigorous and varied applications, by extending it and deploying it. It is not words that they contribute: what they do is enrich their words, deepen their meanings and tie down their usage; they teach it unaccustomed rhythms, prudently though and with ingenuity.”

MindBookBeautifulLanguageTeachInnovationRhythmTiesApplicationExpandingVigorousIngenuityExtendingUsageBeautiful MindDeploying
Author:Michel de Montaigne
Create image

“I would like to suggest that our minds are swamped by too much study and by too much matter just as plants are swamped by too much water or lamps by too much oil; that our minds, held fast and encumbered by so many diverse preoccupations, may well lose the means of struggling free, remaining bowed and bent under the load; except that it is quite otherwise: the more our souls are filled, the more they expand; examples drawn from far-off times show, on the contrary, that great soldiers ad statesmen were also great scholars.”

MindWellsMayMeanSoulMatterShowsWaterLosesStruggleStudyToo MuchExampleFilledPlantSoldierEducationalOilContraryAdsScholarLoadDiverseBentLampsStatesmenPreoccupation
Book:The Essays of Michel de Montaigne
Create image

“As for our pupils talk, let his virtue and his sense of right and wrong shine through it and have no guide but reason. Make him understand that confessing an error which he discovers in his own argument even when he alone has noticed it is an act of justice and integrity, which are the main qualities he pursues; stubbornness and rancour are vulgar qualities, visible in common souls whereas to think again, to change one's mind and to give up a bad case on the heat of the argument are rare qualities showing strength and wisdom.”

ThinkingGivingMindSoulReasonJusticeCommonQualityCasesVirtueWords Of WisdomIntegrityGiving UpArgumentShiningErrorsEducationalGuidesPursueHeatVisibleVulgarPupilsStubbornnessConfessingStrength And Wisdom
Author:Michel de Montaigne
Create image

“But as Nature is the best guide, teaching must be the development of natural inclinations, for which purpose the teacher must watch his pupil and listen to him, not continually bawl words into his ears as if pouring water into a funnel. Good teaching will come from a mind well made rather than well filled.”

IfsMindWellsMadePurposeWaterNaturalWatchesTeacherTeachingDevelopmentEarsMathematicsFilledGuidesMathematicalInclinationPupilsPouringGood Teaching
Author:Michel de Montaigne
Create image

“Men do not know the natural infirmity of their mind: it does nothing but ferret and quest, and keeps incessantly whirling around, building up and becoming entangled in its own work, like silkworms, and is suffocated in it. A mouse in a pitch barrel...thinks it notices from a distance some sort of glimmer of imaginary light and truth; but while running toward it, it is crossed by so many difficulties and obstacles, and diverted by so many new quests, that it strays from the road, bewildered.”

ThinkingKnowsMenMindDoeLightRunningNaturalBuildingBecomingDifficultyDistanceObstaclesImaginaryQuestsMiceBarrelsInfirmityIncessantlyBewilderedBuilding UpFerrets
Author:Michel de Montaigne
Create image

“Now, since our condition accommodates things to itself, and transforms them according to itself, we no longer know things in their reality; for nothing comes to us that is not altered and falsified by our Senses. When the compass, the square, and the rule are untrue, all the calculations drawn from them, all the buildings erected by their measure, are of necessity also defective and out of plumb. The uncertainty of our senses renders uncertain everything that they produce.”

KnowsMindPhilosophyBodyRealityPsychologyConditionsProduceBuildingMedicineSensesUncertaintySquaresUncertainCompassCalculationsAlteredAccommodateUntrueDefectiveSoma
Author:Michel de Montaigne
Create image