Thinker

Michel de Montaigne quotes

8 passages in English · 1533–1592 · Renaissance humanism / skepticism.

Overview

Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) invented the modern essay as a form of self-study, combining classical learning with skeptical inquiry into custom and certainty.

Main ideas

Que sais-je? What do I know? Montaigne examines the self as changing, criticizes anthropocentric pride, and treats philosophy as an art of living under uncertainty.

Major works

  • Essays

Legacy

Montaigne shaped modern subjectivity, essayistic philosophy, and tolerant skepticism in European letters.

Themes in this archive

Knowledge (1) · Death (1) · Autonomy (1) · Life (1) · Education (1) · Self (1)

  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.
  6. I do not portray being. I portray passing.
  7. Each man calls barbarism whatever is not his own custom.
  8. There is nothing so beautiful and legitimate as to play the man well and properly.