Michel de Montaigne

Find the best quotes, maxims and aphorisms of Michel de Montaigne

Biography : Michel Eyquem de Montaigne is a French Renaissance writer and philosopher. He is best known for his Essays, in which he explores human nature, wisdom, and tolerance through personal reflections and skeptical maxims.
Born: 1533 - Died: 1592
Period:
16th century
Place of birth: France
France

France

Michel de Montaigne - Quotes

When someone opposes me, he arouses my attention, not my anger. I go to greet a man who contradicts me, who instructs me.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

anger

I think my opinions are good and sound, but who does not think the same of his own?
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

opinion

I think my opinions are good and sound, but who does not think the same of his own?

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

The strangest, most generous, and proudest of all virtues is true courage.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

Every other knowledge is harmful to him who does not have knowledge of goodness.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

There are certain things that we hide in order to reveal them.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

My trade and art is to live.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

The most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

wisdom

Philosophy is the art which teaches us how to live.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

When I dance, I dance; when I sleep, I sleep.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

When I dance, I dance; when I sleep, I sleep.

Every man bears the whole stamp of the human condition.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

There is nothing so beautiful and legitimate as to play the man well and properly.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

Few men have been admired by their own households.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

Philosophize is to learn how to die.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

others

There is no desire more natural than the desire for knowledge.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I was I.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

friendship

Age imprints more wrinkles in the mind than it does on the face.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

It requires management to enjoy life.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

life

It requires management to enjoy life.

It is doubtless a fine harmony when doing and saying go together.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

Wisdom has its excesses, and has no less need of moderation than does folly.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

We are born to inquire after truth; it belongs to a greater power to possess it.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

truth

I speak truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare; and I dare a little more, as I grow older.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

Who fears to suffer, already suffers what he fears.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

Virtue will not be followed but for herself; and, if we sometimes borrow her mask for some other occasion, she presently pulls it off again.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

Thus, reader, I am myself the matter of my book.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

book

The true mirror of our discourse is the course of our lives.
Michel de Montaigne /

mirror

For truly it is to be noted, that children's plays are not sports, and should be deemed as their most serious actions.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

To know much is often the cause of doubting more.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

The world is nothing but variety and dissimilarity.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays /

world