Q0052

Michel de Montaigne

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.
Thinker Michel de Montaigne
School Renaissance Humanism
Source Essays I.39
Theme Autonomy
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Essays I.39, 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 autonomy, 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.). The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0052

MLA: Michel de Montaigne. “The greatest thing in the world is to….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0052.

Chicago: Michel de Montaigne. “The greatest thing in the world is to….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0052.

Same thinker

More from Michel de Montaigne

  1. What do I know?
  2. To philosophize is to learn how to die.
  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 autonomy

  1. All else belongs to others; time alone is ours.
  2. Claim yourself for yourself.
  3. I do not wish them to have power over men; but over themselves.
  4. Enlightenment is the human being's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity.
  5. That little bit of innate knowing of yours is your own criterion.

Browse the autonomy theme