“I quote others only in order the better to express myself.”
Work
<b>A collection of classic essays from one of the most influential figures of the Renaissance</b><br><br><b>"Screech's fine version ... must surely serve as the definitive English Montaigne" —A.C. Grayling, F<i>inancial Times</i></b><br><b><br>"A superb edition" —Nicholas Wollaston, <i>Observer<br></i></b><br>French philosopher Michel de Montaigne was single-handedly responsible for popularizing the essay as a literary form. This Penguin Classics edition of <i>The Complete Essays</i> is translated from the French and edited with an introduction and notes by M. A. Screech. In 1572 Montaigne retired to his estates in order to devote himself to leisure, reading and reflection. There he wrote his constantly expanding "assays", inspired by the ideas he found in books contained in his library and from his own experience. He discusses subjects as diverse as war-horses and cannibals, poetry and politics, sex and religion, love and friendship, ecstasy and experience. But, above all, Montaigne studied himself as a way of drawing out his own inner nature and that of men and women in general. <br><br><i>The Complete Essays</i> are among the most idiosyncratic and personal works in all literature and provide an engaging insight into a wise Renaissance mind, continuing to give pleasure and enlightenment to modern readers. With its extensive introduction and notes, M. A. Screech's edition of Montaigne is widely regarded as the most distinguished of recent times. Michel de Montaigne (1533-1586) studied law and spent a number of years working as a counsellor before devoting his life to reading, writing and reflection.
Quotes
Showing 1-17 of 17
Michel de Montaigne
Canonical work source
“I quote others only in order the better to express myself.”
“Every other knowledge is harmful to him who does not have knowledge of goodness.”
“Why do people respect the package rather than the man?”
“Stupidity and wisdom meet in the same centre of sentiment and resolution, in the suffering of human accidents.”
“Judgement can do without knowledge: but not knowledge without judgement.”
“The greater part of the world's troubles are due to questions of grammar.”
“It is a disaster that wisdom forbids you to be satisfied with yourself and always sends you away dissatisfied and fearful, whereas stubbornness and foolhardiness fill their hosts with joy an...”
“[Marriage] happens as with cages: the birds without despair to get in, and those within despair of getting out.”
“Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens.”
“There is nothing more notable in Socrates than that he found time, when he was an old man, to learn music and dancing, and thought it time well spent.”
“All is a-swarm with commentaries: of authors there is a dearth.”
“The advantage of living is not measured by length, but by use; some men have lived long, and lived little; attend to it while you are in it. It lies in your will, not in the number of years,...”
“Learned we may be with another man's learning: we can only be wise with wisdom of our own.”
“We must not attach knowledge to the mind, we have to incorporate it there.”
“Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.”
“The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.”
“If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I was I.”