Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete

The present publication is intended to supply a recognised deficiency in our literature a library...

At the time to which we have come, Montaigne was unknown to the world of letters, except as a...

MONSIEUR, DE MONTAIGNE, Inasmuch as I hold in great esteem your fidelity and zealous devotion to my...

He proceeded to inquire how they behaved at present. Very well, said I, considering the...

At this stage he proceeded, among other things, to pray me again and again, in a most affectionate...

For my own part; sir, it is not in my way to judge of such matters; but I have heard persons who...

READER, thou hast here an honest book; it doth at the outset forewarn thee that, in contriving the...

Love deprives me of all my faculties. Lesbia, when once in thy presence, I have not left the power...

Another, though contrary curiosity of which singularity, also, I do not want domestic example,...

I could, and do, with great facility, rely upon the faith of another; but I should very unwillingly...

However, I derive these comforts from my infirmity. first, that it is an evil from which...

I think never the better of them for some such accidental hit. There would be more certainty in it...

But forasmuch as the strength or weakness of a fortress is always measured by the estimate and...

The Greeks acknowledged another kind of fear, differing from any we have spoken of yet, that...

let us learn bravely to stand our ground, and fight him. And to begin to deprive him of the...

Our very religion itself has no surer human foundation than the contempt of life. Not only the...

Tis very probable, that visions, enchantments, and all extraordinary effects of that nature, derive...

He seems to me to have had a right and true apprehension of the power of custom, who first invented...

Tis by the mediation of custom, that every one is content with the place where he is planted by...

Jacques Amiot, grand almoner of France, one day related to me this story, much to the honour of a...

I was often, when a boy, wonderfully concerned to see, in the Italian farces, a pedant always...

We are not to tie learning to the soul, but to work and incorporate them together. not to tincture...

But, be it how it will, and how inconsiderable soever these ineptitudes may be, I will say I never...

And, moreover, by living at home, the authority of this governor, which ought to be sovereign over...

Anaximenes writing to Pythagoras, To what purpose, said he, should I trouble myself in searching...

These are my lessons, and he who puts them in practice shall reap more advantage than he who has...

Yet for all this heavy disposition of mine, my mind, when retired into itself, was not altogether...

is more active, more eager, and more sharp. but withal, tis more precipitant, fickle, moving, and...

There is no action or imagination of mine wherein I do not miss him; as I know that he would have...

teach the husbands, that is, such as are too vehement in the exercise of the matrimonial duty if...

As to the rest, they live in a country very pleasant and temperate, so that, as my witnesses inform...

To which I would willingly, if I durst, join a pack of people that take upon them to interpret and...

so were we. but as those who by artificial light put out that of day, so we by borrowed forms and...

When Pompeys head was presented to Caesar, the histories tell us that he turned away his face, as...

Solitude seems to me to wear the best favour in such as have already employed their most active and...

they have only retired to take a better leap, and by a stronger motion to give a brisker charge...

Every opinion is of force enough to cause itself to be espoused at the expense of life. The first...

Let us bring in the women too. Who has not heard at Paris of her that caused her face to be flayed...

Every one is well or ill at ease, according as he so finds himself; not he whom the world believes,...

The flatterers of Alexander the Great possessed him that he was the son of Jupiter; but being one...

Zeleucus by the like invention reclaimed the corrupted manners of the Locrians. His laws were, that...

But this consideration leads me, perforce, into another subject. Let us pry a little narrowly into,...

Art thou not ashamed, said he to him, to sing so well. As great a benefit to be without children...

A pretty description of something very like an arquebuse shot. The ten thousand Greeks in their...

I wish to muster up here some old customs that I have in memory, some of them the same with ours,...

A rhetorician of times past said, that to make little things appear great was his profession. This...

Our appetite is irresolute and fickle; it can neither keep nor enjoy anything with a good grace....

Plato in his Laws, makes three sorts of belief injurious to the gods; that there are none; that...

A true prayer and religious reconciling of ourselves to Almighty God cannot enter into an impure...

Antigonus, having taken one of his soldiers into a great degree of favour and esteem for his...

I could not have believed there had been so profound, senseless, and dead a degree of drunkenness...

Philip having forcibly entered into Peloponnesus, and some one saying to Damidas that the...

Alexander, laying siege to a city of the Indies, those within, finding themselves very hardly set,...

Apollodorus dreamed that he saw himself flayed by the Scythians and afterwards boiled in a...

I can, for my part, think of no state so insupportable and dreadful, as to have the soul vivid and...

as also, besides, a condition suitable to such a dignity. But, I say, though more men were worthy...

I am angry at the custom of forbidding children to call their father by the name of father, and to...

Alexander, the most adventurous captain that ever was, very seldom wore armour, and such amongst us...

and so possesses the soul with his graces that we forget those of his fable. This same...

I am come thus far at my ease; but here it comes into my head that the soul of Socrates, the most...

I live in a time wherein we abound in incredible examples of this vice, through the licence of our...

martyrs. The peculiar mark of our truth ought to be our virtue, as it is also the most heavenly and...

The tamer herds, and wilder sort of brutes. Though we of higher race conclude them mutes. Yet utter...

All this I have said to prove the resemblance there is in human things, and to bring us back and...

They must necessarily have very confidently relied upon the fidelity and understanding of these...

Quod futuit Glaphyran Antonius, hanc mihi poenam Fulvia constituit, se quoqne uti futuam. Fulviam...

to the beauty of the body, before I proceed any further I should know whether or no we are agreed...

Would you have a man healthy, would you have him regular, and in a steady and secure posture....

It was what a Roman senator of the latter ages said, that their predecessors breath stunk of...

Cicero reprehends some of his friends for giving more of their time to the study of astrology,...

Thales, who first inquired into this sort of matter, believed God to be a Spirit that made all...

and that the two noble and generous souls of the two Decii, the father and the son, to incline the...

Now by the same consequence, the destinies are then for us; for us the world; it shines it thunders...

And as to those answers of which they make old stories, as he that doubted if there was any such...

Others, that they only rejoined and reunited themselves to it; others, that they were produced from...

reservation. The most positive dogmatists are fain, in this point principally, to fly to the refuge...

One thing can no more or less be comprehended than another, because the definition of comprehending...

So swelling surges, with a thundering roar, Drivn on each others backs, insult the shore, Bound oer...

I have three guests invited to a feast, And all appear to have a different taste; What shall I give...

It is, I suppose, out of tenderness and respect to the natural modesty of mankind that a great and...

This so desperate and unphilosophical advice expresses only this, that human knowledge cannot...

We should, therefore, to make a right judgment of the oppositions of the senses, be first agreed...

There is nothing, in my opinion, more illustrious in the life of Socrates, than that he had thirty...

Tis an effect of the divine Providence to suffer the holy Church to be afflicted, as we see it,...

what do they intend by that but to instruct them never to hazard themselves if they are not seen,...

I shall have no more handle whereby to take hold of reputation, neither shall it have any whereby...

But to return to what concerns myself; I think it would be very difficult for any other man to have...

Extremely idle, extremely given up to my own inclination both by nature and art, I would as...

Those of our time who have considered in the establishment of the duty of a prince the good of his...

Human reason is a two edged and dangerous sword. observe in the hands of Socrates, her most...

Will you do what reformed Polemon did of old. will you lay aside the joys of your disease, your...

It is certain that in those first times, when our religion began to gain authority with the laws,...

It is likewise true, that for the use of life and the service of public commerce, there may be some...

I understand that the Wallachians, the grand Signiors couriers, perform wonderful journeys, by...

Reading in Froissart the vow of a troop of young English gentlemen, to keep their left eyes bound...

for naturally any company whatever is consolatory in danger. Third persons were formerly called in...

That which they, report of him, amongst other things, that in his extreme old age he put himself...

I have seen a great many commanders encourage their soldiers with this fatal necessity; for if our...

Tis a passion that is pleased with and flatters itself. How often, being moved under a false cause,...

Let us now come to Plutarch. Jean Bodin is a good author of our times, and a writer of much greater...

But all these good inclinations were stifled and spoiled by his furious ambition, by which he...

He was wont to say that he more valued a victory obtained by counsel than by force, and in the war...

When the chaste Arria gave to Poetus the reeking sword she had drawn from her breast, If you...

Scipio AEmilianus alone, could one attribute to him as brave and magnificent an end, and as...

I should hardly be of that humour who hold health to be worth purchasing by all the most painful...

Even the very promises of physic are incredible in themselves; for, having to provide against...

I have taken the pains to plead this cause, which I understand indifferently, a little to back and...

I say nothing to one party that I may not, upon occasion, say to the other, with a little...

The end of this matter is excusable, if any can be so; but the profit of the augmentation of the...

Thou must employ thy own judgment upon thyself; great is the weight of thy own conscience in the...

In all affairs that are past, be it how it will, I have very little regret; for this imagination...

You tell us long stories about the race of AEacus, and the battles fought under sacred Ilium; but...

Books have many charming qualities to such as know how to choose them; but every good has its ill;...

I was once wounded with a vehement displeasure, and withal, more just than vehement; I might...

Pleasure is a quality of very little ambition; it thinks itself rich enough of itself without any...

I know not who could set Pallas and the Muses at variance with Venus, and make them cold towards...

They are different ends, he says, and yet in some sort compatible; marriage has utility, justice,...

I do not know whether the exploits of Alexander and Caesar really surpass the resolution of a...

Seest thou how many honest men are reproached with this in thy presence; believe that thou art no...

But my soul displeases me, in that it ordinarily produces its deepest and most airy conceits and...

Such as know Italy will not think it strange if, for this subject, I seek not elsewhere for...

May we not say that there is nothing in us, during this earthly prison, that is purely either...

I was never afraid upon the water, nor indeed in any other peril and I have had enough before my...

The emperors excused the superfluity of their plays and public spectacles by reason that their...

As to boldness and courage, stability, constancy against pain, hunger, and death, I should not fear...

Now, the incommodity of greatness that I have taken to remark in this place, upon some occasion...

and who can do nothing but by book, I hate it, if I dare to say so, worse than stupidity. In my...

Now, I was upon this point, that there needs no more but to see a man promoted to dignity; though...

And writing in an age wherein the belief of prodigies began to decline, he says he would not,...

I am no philosopher; evils oppress me according to their weight, and they weigh as much according...

In fine, I see by our example, that the society of men is maintained and held together, at what...

For my part, the very being tied to what I am to say is enough to loose me from it. When I wholly...

I have a thousand times gone to bed in my own house with an apprehension that I should be betrayed...

In true friendship, wherein I am perfect, I more give myself to my friend, than I endeavour to...

I have a constitution of body as free, and a palate as indifferent, as any man living. the...

would have laughed at it, so little does the Spartan innocence resemble that of France. We are not...

Few things, in comparison of what commonly affect other men, move, or, to say better, possess me....

Socrates, seeing a great quantity of riches, jewels, and furniture carried in pomp through his...

We do not pray that our reason may not be combated and overcome by concupiscence, but that it...

and if they sometimes lash out upon some rude and sensible impression, tis in truth without my...

Tis wonderful from how many idle beginnings and frivolous causes such famous impressions commonly,...

Whether the heat opens more passages and secret pores through which the sap may be derived into the...

but future too; the living were to suffer, and so were they who were yet unborn; they stript them,...

We trouble life by the care of death, and death by the care of life. the one torments, the other...

this refers to an unnatural ugliness and deformity of limbs; but we call ugliness also an...

Nature always gives them better and happier than those we make ourselves; witness the picture of...

Quis deus hanc mundi temperet arte domum. Qua venit exoriens, qua deficit. unde coactis Cornibus in...

All that Suetonius says in his Life of Tiberius is that this emperor, after he was thirty years...

Is life worth so much. We are compelled to withhold the mind from things to which we are...

The worst that I see in other diseases is, that they are not so grievous in their effect as they...