Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
Michel Eyquem de Montaignewas one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance, known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre. His work is noted for its merging of casual anecdotes and autobiography with serious intellectual insight; his massive volume Essaiscontains some of the most influential essays ever written. Montaigne had a direct influence on writers all over the world, including Francis Bacon, René Descartes, Blaise Pascal, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Albert Hirschman, William Hazlitt, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Friedrich Nietzsche,...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth28 February 1533
CountryFrance
We can be knowledgable with other men's knowledge but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom.
The wise man lives as long as he ought, not so long as he can.
Though we may be learned by another's knowledge, we can never be wise but by our own experience.
Wise men have more to learn of fools than fools of wise men.
A man must become wise at his own expense.
A wise man never loses anything, if he has himself.
Learned we may be with another man's learning: we can only be wise with wisdom of our own.
We can be knowledgeable with other men's knowledge, but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom.
Socrates thought and so do I that the wisest theory about the gods is no theory at all.
The wise man should withdraw his soul within, out of the crowd, and keep it in freedom and power to judge things freely; but as for externals, he should wholly follow the accepted fashions and forms.
Fortune, seeing that she could not make fools wise, has made them lucky.
Fortune, to show us her power in all things, and to abate our presumption, seeing she could not make fools wise, has made them fortunate.
God might grant us riches, honours, life, and even health, to our own hurt; for every thing that is pleasing to us is not always good for us. If he sends us death, or an increase of sickness, instead of a cure, Vvrga tua et baculus, tuus ipsa me consolata sunt. "Thy rod and thy staff have comforted me," he does it by the rule of his providence, which better and more certainly discerns what is proper for us than we can do; and we ought to take it in good part, as coming from a wise and most friendly hand.
Wise people are foolish if they cannot adapt to foolish people.