Michel Eyquem de Montaigne is popularly known as the Lord of Montaigne. He was behind the popularity of essays as the literary genre. He was one of the best philosophers at the time of the French Renaissance. There is one huge volume known as Essais in his works, which contains unique and influential essays. He was interested in the region of western philosophy. There are two most famous ideas by Montaigne, i.e. Montaigne's wheel argument and the Public Opinion. Montaigne was a great contributor to French literature. Child education is the most influential area of his philosophical context.
Michel Montaigne is responsible for changing philosophy in his times and achieved the humanist revolution in philosophy. He changed the notion of philosophy where the argument of philosophy as theoretical science is shaped into philosophy as the practice of free judgement. Montaigne has a distinct perspective regarding human beings. He thought that human beings are the same as other creatures or some creatures are superior to human beings. According to his writings, Montaigne came across neither as Pessimistic or Optimistic. He just put forward their views like others. He was known as the father of the modern Essay. Below are some of the famous Michel de Montaigne Quotes.
The most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness.
This quote means that a wise person is always cheerful as compared to an unwise one. The quality of being wise and full of wisdom is reflected by the cheerful nature of the person.
The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.
This quote means that seeking self-knowledge is the greatest thing in the world. When you get self-knowledge, you can figure out both the best and worst situations.
I do not care so much what I am to others as I care what I am to myself.
This quote means don't think about how you are doing to others; it doesn't help you much, but what you are exactly doing to yourself—thinking of yourself and about your behaviour and daily life affects and matters the most. It helps to get rich and valuable values for thinking and improving about yourself.
I quote others only in order the better to express myself.
This means that your life energy and other learnings are carried forward from your actions. The best things require some medium to transfer, and this is only possible by others. If not transferred, it gets blocked and does not exist again and remains of no importance.
When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind.
This quote means that books are the helper to banish every kind of doubt from your mind. When any kind of thought struck in your mind, accept the books to read. They will help you to get out of the situation. Give you at the end the peace of mind.
Continue reading some of the best Michel de Montaigne Quotes...
He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.
This quote illustrates the suffering and fear. Suffering came from fear. Fear came up with all things with a dominating attitude. The only thing left to enjoy is to overcome the fear of everything. This single life is all about forgetting your fear and living the fullest of life and overcoming the fear.
If I speak of myself in different ways, that is because I look at myself in different ways.
This quote means that understand yourself from a different perspective, don't just stick with the one way of living or having a person with a single perspective. Life is full of living in different ways with taking things from a different perspective.
Learned we may be with another man's learning: we can only be wise with the wisdom of our own.
This quote means that learning things from other people is quite useful, but do not rely on living life in other people's arms. Our own wisdom is incomparable to others. Our views, thinking, and knowledge are wiser than any other person. Therefore, choose your path with your knowledge and thinking.
Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it.
This quote means that forgetting things of memory is not easy to do. But, wishing about forgetting things of the memory works much faster. This directly fixes your mind.
I am afraid that our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, and that we have more curiosity than understanding. We grasp at everything, but catch nothing except wind.
This quote means that the eyes play a bigger role. We only look and forget what we see; we don't get to grasp the things or learn them. In the case of the stomach, we eat what we look at. Our eyes are mainly for grasping the things or actions going on before us, rather than ignoring or forgetting them.
Some more Michel de Montaigne Quotes...
Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens.
This quote means that the man decided their superstitions on their own. Man depends on their thoughts, what they want to believe and what they don't want to believe. Grasping superstitions is easier than discarding them from your life.
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.
This quote represents blind faith. People believe more easily in something that they do not know about or know least about. People have more trust in rumours than the things they know more.
Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself.
This quote means that you love the other person but don't spend your whole life loving the other person. Give yourself your love too. Don't give all of your love away since you also need your love.
If there is such a thing as a good marriage, it is because it resembles friendship rather than love.
This quote means that friendship is much greater than love. And the friendship with love is eternal. Good marriage more talks about friendship than love. Friendship gives freedom to your life.
I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.
This quote means that more educated people are giving incorrect reasons which are of no use. The less educated people or the people who are not educated are not involved in giving you the wrong suggestion. They give you better suggestions based on their experiences and learning in their life.
Few more Michel de Montaigne Quotes...
To forbid us anything is to make us have a mind for it.
This quote means that you need to make up your mind to prevent yourself from doing something wrong. Your mind needs strong belief to order that something not occur.
Obsession is the wellspring of genius and madness.
This quote means that Obsession creates the eccentric and develops into creative intelligence. The intelligent or the genius person always has the taste of madness. Madness and genius have a correlation and work perfectly with each other.
Let us give Nature a chance; she knows her business better than we do.
This quote means that nature is something that heals on its own. Nature needs no one to heal them, only one thing is needed by nature, and it is only a chance. Nature only wants one chance from the human; the rest of the thing will do on its own.
My art and profession are to live.
This quote means that Michael called the living as the art and the profession. If you understand the way of living, you will exactly get to live with both your passion and profession. Better living is having a better profession.
There were many terrible things in my life and most of them never happened.
This quote means that terrible things are those which never happened. Because if they happened, they are precisely not going to be terrible. We only categorize terrible things, which we haven't experienced or go through it.
