Michel de Montaigne - Quodid

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Picture of Michel de Montaigne

Michel Eyquem, Seigneur de Montaigne (28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592), commonly known as just Michel de Montaigne, was one of the most significant writers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularising the essay as a literary genre. His work is noted for its merging of casual anecdotes and autobiography with intellectual insight. Montaigne had a direct influence on numerous writers of Western literature; his Essais contain some of the most influential essays ever written.

Quotes from Michel de Montaigne

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

love irrationality identity

Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it.

—Michel de Montaigne

memory forgetting

whoever saw old age that did not applaud the past and condemn the present?

—Michel de Montaigne

past perception age present

Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself.

—Michel de Montaigne

Let us permit nature to have her way. She understands her business better than we do.

—Michel de Montaigne

nature business

I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.

—Michel de Montaigne

education poverty logic reason peasants

We take other men's knowledge and opinions upon trust; which is an idle and superficial learning. We must make them our own. We are just like a man who, needing fire, went to a neighbor's house to fetch it, and finding a very good one there, sat down to warm himself without remembering to carry any back home. What good does it do us to have our belly full of meat if it is not digested, if it is not transformed into us, if it does not nourish and support us?

—Michel de Montaigne

learning knowledge curiosity trust fire

Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.

—Michel de Montaigne

self events control

There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.

—Michel de Montaigne

The most profound joy has more of gravity than of gaiety in it.

—Michel de Montaigne

He who is not very strong in memory should not meddle with lying.

—Michel de Montaigne

Don't discuss yourself, for you are bound to lose; if you belittle yourself, you are believed; if you praise yourself, you are disbelieved.

—Michel de Montaigne

belief self-centeredness praise

When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind.

—Michel de Montaigne

The man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears.

—Michel de Montaigne

My trade and art is to live.

—Michel de Montaigne

living art trade

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