Q0236

Michel de Montaigne

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

I do not portray being. I portray passing.
Thinker Michel de Montaigne
School Renaissance Humanism
Source Essays III.2
Theme Self
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Essays III.2, 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 self, 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.). I do not portray being. I portray passing. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0236

MLA: Michel de Montaigne. “I do not portray being. I portray passing..” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0236.

Chicago: Michel de Montaigne. “I do not portray being. I portray passing..” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0236.

Same thinker

More from Michel de Montaigne

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

All quotations by Michel de Montaigne

Same theme

More on self

  1. A friend is another self.
  2. A person's character is their destiny.
  3. I searched for myself.
  4. It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.
  5. Claim yourself for yourself.

Browse the self theme