Michel de Montaigne

Michel de Montaigne

40 quotes

The French author, philosopher, and statesman Michel de Montaigne is someone whose pithy observations have become part of everyday conversation. Celebrated for just Michel de Montaigne, was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance, Michel de Montaigne brought that same intensity to the written and spoken word. Discover 49 of Michel de Montaigne's most memorable quotes, ranging across Marriage, Nature, Death, Wisdom, and Truth. To get a sense of their style, try: "If there is such a thing as a good marriage, it is because it resembles friendship rather than love."

“Even from their infancy we frame them to the sports of love: their instruction, behavior, attire, grace, learning and all their words azimuth only at love, respects only affection. Their nurses and their keepers imprint no other thing in them.”

— Michel de Montaigne

Learning

All Quotes by Michel de Montaigne

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

— Michel de Montaigne

Business

“There is no desire more natural than the desire for knowledge.”

— Michel de Montaigne

Knowledge

“It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others.”

— Michel de Montaigne

Intelligence

“I speak the 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

Truth

“Even from their infancy we frame them to the sports of love: their instruction, behavior, attire, grace, learning and all their words azimuth only at love, respects only affection. Their nurses and their keepers imprint no other thing in them.”

— Michel de Montaigne

Learning

“The strangest, most generous, and proudest of all virtues is true courage.”

— Michel de Montaigne

Courage

“If you don't know how to die, don't worry Nature will tell you what to do on the spot, fully and adequately. She will do this job perfectly for you don't bother your head about it.”

— Michel de Montaigne

Nature

“Age imprints more wrinkles in the mind than it does on the face.”

— Michel de Montaigne

Age

“The ceaseless labour of your life is to build the house of death.”

— Michel de Montaigne

Death

“Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul.”

— Michel de Montaigne

Courage

“There is not much less vexation in the government of a private family than in the managing of an entire state.”

— Michel de Montaigne

Family

“My trade and art is to live.”

— Michel de Montaigne

Art

“Stubborn and ardent clinging to one's opinion is the best proof of stupidity.”

— Michel de Montaigne

Best

“There is little less trouble in governing a private family than a whole kingdom.”

— Michel de Montaigne

Family

“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

“The thing I fear most is fear.”

— Michel de Montaigne

Fear

“Marriage, a market which has nothing free but the entrance.”

— Michel de Montaigne

Marriage

“The confidence in another man's virtue is no light evidence of a man's own, and God willingly favors such a confidence.”

— Michel de Montaigne

God

“If there is such a thing as a good marriage, it is because it resembles friendship rather than love.”

— Michel de Montaigne

Friendship

“The most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness.”

— Michel de Montaigne

Wisdom