Q0050

Michel de Montaigne

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

What do I know?
Thinker Michel de Montaigne
School Renaissance Humanism
Source II.12
Theme Knowledge
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with II.12, within the tradition of Renaissance Humanism. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of knowledge, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Michel de Montaigne's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Michel de Montaigne. (n.d.). What do I know? In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0050

MLA: Michel de Montaigne. “What do I know?.” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0050.

Chicago: Michel de Montaigne. “What do I know?.” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0050.

Same thinker

More from Michel de Montaigne

  1. To philosophize is to learn how to die.
  2. The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.
  3. The usefulness of living is not in length of days, but in their use: one may have lived long, and yet have lived little.
  4. Better a well-made head than a well-filled head.
  5. I do not portray being. I portray passing.

All quotations by Michel de Montaigne

Same theme

More on knowledge

  1. What I do not know, I do not claim to know.
  2. No one errs willingly.
  3. What then is time? If no one asks me, I know; if I wish to explain it to one who asks, I do not know.
  4. Once in a lifetime, everything must be doubted.
  5. The world is my representation.

Browse the knowledge theme