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Philosopher

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Michel de Montaigne

1533–1592 · Renaissance humanism · Renaissance

Michel de Montaigne retired from public office to a tower library and, from 1572 on, wrote the Essays, a form he largely invented. The first two books appeared in 1580. A third book, and heavy revision, followed in 1588. He reads Plutarch, Seneca, and Sextus, and he uses other people's sentences to think, not to decorate.

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His motto is a question rather than a doctrine. It withholds rash assent. It does not claim that nothing can be known, and it sits beside duties, law, and friendship rather than cancelling them. The essay on friendship mourns Etienne de La Boetie in a sentence that refuses to itemise a unique bond. The essay on cannibals turns the charge of barbarism back on European custom.

The late essays say he portrays passing rather than being, and that the duty is to compose a character rather than only books. M. A. Screech's English and Donald Frame's are the standard modern translations. The French is the text. He is a sceptic and a particular man, and the Essays are the record of both.

Start here

Essays, On Friendship, On the Cannibals, and On Experience, in Screech or Frame

Those three show the particular bond, the sceptical politics, and the late art of living. The motto makes more sense afterwards.

Quotations

“If you press me to say why I loved him, I feel that it cannot be expressed, except by answering: because it was he, because it was I.”

Michel de Montaigne · Renaissance humanism

loveselfmeaning
Paraphrase or translation
Meaning & application
“To compose our character is our duty, not to compose books, and to win, not battles and provinces, but order and tranquillity in our conduct.”

Michel de Montaigne · Renaissance humanism

virtueselfethics
Paraphrase or translation
Meaning & application
“It is an absolute perfection, and as it were divine, to know how to enjoy our being rightly.”

Michel de Montaigne · Renaissance humanism

happinessselfvirtue
Paraphrase or translation
Meaning & application

Key ideas

  • The motto-question

    The motto-question withholds rash assent, and it does not claim that knowledge is impossible.

  • The self as passage

    He portrays a changing life, and he thinks one ordinary life can bear the form of the human condition.

  • Custom and cruelty

    Calling others barbarous often means only that their practice is not ours, while cruelty at home goes unnamed.

  • Belonging to oneself

    The greatest thing is a self-possession that office and reputation do not own, which is not the same as isolation.

Major works

  • Essays, books 1 and 2 (1580, revised later)

    Includes the education essay, friendship, cannibals, solitude, and learning to die.

  • Essays, book 3 (1588)

    Includes On Repentance and On Experience, the late statements of passage and of living.

  • Travel journal (1580–1581)

    Not part of the Essays. A record of the journey to Italy, useful and less philosophical.

Influences

Influenced

Common misreadings

  • The motto is a claim to know that nothing can be known.
  • The friendship sentence means no love can be discussed, rather than that this particular bond cannot be reduced to a list of traits.

Famous lines Michel de Montaigne never said

None of the lines this library files for Michel de Montaigne is marked Questionable or Misattributed. That is only a fact about these cards. It is not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.

FAQ

What is the best book to start with?

Essays, On Friendship, On the Cannibals, and On Experience, in Screech or Frame Those three show the particular bond, the sceptical politics, and the late art of living. The motto makes more sense afterwards.

What is the most famous quote?

This library does not measure fame, and it does not rank lines by how often they are shared. The first line it files for Michel de Montaigne that is not marked Questionable or Misattributed is “What do I know?” (The Essays; his motto, Que sais-je?, Paraphrase or translation).

What is the most misquoted line?

None of the lines this library files for Michel de Montaigne is marked Misattributed or Questionable. That is a fact about these cards, not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.

What is one key idea, in a sentence?

The motto-question: The motto-question withholds rash assent, and it does not claim that knowledge is impossible.