Montaigne here comes an honest man. Sayings, aphorisms and quotes by Michel de Montaigne
The scourge of man is imaginary knowledge.
Prudence is also characterized by extremes, and it needs measure no less than frivolity.
Let us beware lest old age put more wrinkles on our soul than on our face.
In friendship there are no calculations and considerations, except for itself.
To take a city by storm, to send an embassy, to reign over the people - all these are brilliant deeds. Laughing, loving and being gentle with your family, not contradicting yourself is something rarer, more difficult and less noticeable to others.
It is not at all required to always say in full what you think, that would be foolishness, but whatever you say must correspond to your thoughts; otherwise, it is a malicious deception.
Nothing in nature is useless.
The doctor, when first starting to treat his patient, should do it gracefully, cheerfully and with pleasantness for the patient; and a gloomy physician will never succeed in his craft.
All means, provided they are dishonorable, that can save us from disasters and troubles, are not only permissible, but also deserve all praise.
Arrogance consists of thinking too high of oneself and too low of others.
The deed is worthy of praise, not the person himself.
Other vices dull the mind, while drunkenness destroys it.
If falsehood, like truth, had one face, our position would be much easier. In such a case, we would consider as certain the opposite of what the liar says. But the opposite of truth has a hundred thousand forms and has no limits.
If a person only wanted to be happy, it would be easy, but everyone wants to be happier than others, and this is almost always very difficult, because we usually consider others happier than they really are.
If we can be learned by the learning of others, then we can only be wise by our own wisdom.
If I lie, I offend myself more than the person I lied about.
To marry without tying yourself in anything is a betrayal.
Life itself is neither good nor evil: it is a container for both good and evil, depending on what you yourself have turned it into.
Knowledge is a double-edged weapon that only burdens and can injure its owner if the hand that holds it is weak and does not know how to use it well.
To deal with people who admire us and are inferior to us in everything is a very insipid pleasure and even harmful to us ...
True dignity is like a river: the deeper it is, the less noise it makes.
True friends are those who have "one soul in two bodies."
True scientists are like ears of corn in a field. While the ear is empty, it grows merrily and proudly raises its head; but when it swells, fills with grain, and ripens, it is imbued with humility and lowers its head.
Book learning is an ornament, not a foundation.
When judging an individual act, before evaluating it, one must take into account various circumstances and take into account the whole appearance of the person who committed it.
When you do good, you yourself experience a certain joyful satisfaction and legitimate pride accompanying a clear conscience.
When the philosopher needed money, he did not say that he would borrow it from friends; he said that he would ask his friends to return the debt to him.
He who is afraid of suffering is already suffering from fear.
Whoever is infected with the fear of disease is already infected with the disease of fear.
Whoever obliges himself to say everything without concealment, he will oblige himself not to do what needs to be silent.
Who is very lean, he willingly wears a jersey, who has little content - they inflate him with words.
Who teaches people to die, he teaches them to live.
Deceit is the worst vice.
Love is a violent attraction to that which runs away from us.
Dozens of people are given to see the fruits of their deeds; seeds scattered by genial natures sprout slowly.
The measure of life is not in its duration, but in how you use it.
I don't know of marriages that would break up with greater ease or would be more difficult than the prisoners because of a passion for beauty or because of falling in love.
A well-built brain is worth more than a well-filled brain.
You can also learn from the enemy.
Silence and modesty are qualities very suitable for conversation.
We cannot think of a better praise for a person than saying that he is gifted by nature.
We are not so much freed from our vices as we exchange them for others.
You have to study a lot to realize that you know little.
... We must try to find out - not who knows more, but who knows better.
We must be able to endure what cannot be avoided.
The worst state of a man is when he ceases to be conscious and in control of himself.
A real friend is someone whom I would trust in everything that concerns me more than myself.
Science is a great ornament and a very useful tool...
Science is a very difficult business. Science is suitable only for strong minds.
Our wit seems to have more speed and suddenness, while our mind has solidity and slowness.
It is not without reason that it is said that one who does not really rely on his memory, it is not easy for him to lie smoothly.
Ignorance is of two kinds: one is illiterate, precedes knowledge; the other, swaggering, follows him.
It is impossible to have an honest and sincere argument with a fool.
Not everything that fluctuates falls.
It is not enough that education does not spoil us, it is necessary that it change us for the better.
I can't imagine how one can be content with second-hand knowledge; although the knowledge of others may teach us something, one is wise only by one's own wisdom.
Often vice itself pushes us to good deeds.
There is no answer more humiliating than a contemptuous silence.
... There is no such decrepit old man who, remembering Methuselah, would not expect to live another twenty years.
There is no desire more natural than the desire for knowledge.
To strictly follow your inclinations and be in their power is to be a slave to yourself.
The dishonest means by which many are exalted clearly shows that the ends are also not worthy of a kind word.
No passion darkens the clarity of judgment to such an extent as anger.
Neither that which precedes death nor that which follows it belongs to it.
Accusations against oneself are always believed, self-praise is never.
Frank speech, like wine and love, evokes the same frankness.
There are as many vices from lack of self-respect as from excessive self-respect.
I have seen very many in my lifetime who have been reduced to complete stupidity by an immoderate thirst for knowledge.
It is very useful to sharpen and polish your mind against the minds of others.
The first sign of the deterioration of public morals is the disappearance of truth, for truthfulness lies at the basis of all virtue.
Crying that we won't live a hundred years from now is just as crazy as crying that we didn't live a hundred years ago.
Genuine intelligent learning changes both our minds and our mores.
The true mirror of our way of thinking is our life.
The concept of virtue presupposes difficulty and struggle, virtue cannot exist without opposition.
To blame one's own shortcomings in another is just as permissible as to blame someone else's in oneself.
After those who occupy the highest positions, I do not know more unfortunate than those who envy them.
Prefer that a person's blood rushes to his cheeks than that it be shed by him.
Nature can and does everything.
Nature is a pleasant mentor, and not so much pleasant as cautious and faithful.
There is no end to our inquisitiveness, the contentment of the mind is a sign of its limitation or fatigue.
If we hate something, then we take it to heart.
A reasonable person sets limits for himself even in good deeds.
The deepest friendship breeds the most bitter enmity.
... The most important thing is to instill a taste and love for science; otherwise we will bring up just donkeys loaded with bookish wisdom.
The most outstanding talents are ruined by idleness.
Most shortcut to win glory is to do with the impulse of conscience what we do for glory.
The best proof of wisdom is continuous good location spirit.
With truly learned people, the same thing happens as with ears of wheat: while they are empty, they proudly and high raise their heads, but when they are full and full of grains, they begin to bow their heads in humiliation.
It would be necessary to have measures of influence established by law that would curb mediocre and worthless hacks, as is done with regard to idlers and parasites.
It is necessary to distinguish the spiritual impulse of a person from a firm and permanent habit.
The word belongs half to the one who speaks and half to the one who listens.
A bold deed need not necessarily presuppose valor in the person who performed it; for he who is truly valorous will always be so under all circumstances.
Death must be the same as life; we don't become different just because we die.
Among other sins, drunkenness seems to me a particularly rude and vile vice.
Among our thousands of habitual actions, we will not find a single one that we would perform directly for our own sake.
Old people should not think about death: let them take care of how best to loosen the beds in the garden.
Old age leaves more wrinkles on our mental appearance than on the face.
Fear either gives wings to the legs, or chains them to the ground.
Modesty adorns the young man and sullies the old man.
It is necessary to judge a person, based mainly on his everyday actions, observing his daily existence.
Human happiness does not at all consist in dying well, but, in my opinion, in living well.
Those who claim that they have many thoughts in their heads, but are unable to express them due to lack of eloquence, have not learned to understand themselves.
Only fools can be unshakable in their confidence.
For those who have not comprehended the science of good, any other science brings only harm.
To the one who said to Socrates: "Thirty tyrants condemned you to death", the latter replied: "Nature condemned them to death."
The fact that we see so few successful marriages is a testament to the value and importance of marriage.
Cowardice is the mother of cruelty.
To double oneself is a great miracle, and its greatness is inaccessible to those who claim to be able to triple themselves.
Animals have that noble feature that a lion never becomes, out of cowardice, the slave of another lion, and a horse the slave of another horse.
The mind that has no definite purpose is lost; to be everywhere is to be nowhere.
Stubbornness and excessive ardor in a dispute is the surest sign of stupidity.
Whether the events of life are good or bad depends largely on how we perceive them.
The worth and dignity of a man lie in his heart and in his will; here is the basis of his true honor.
It takes more intelligence to teach another than to teach yourself.
What could be more difficult than to protect ourselves from the enemy, who put on the guise of our most devoted friend.
I speak the truth insofar as I dare to speak it; the older I get, I dare to do it less and less.
I have observed only one action of the rod - it either dulls or embitters the soul.
I have often met people who were impolite precisely because they were too polite, and insufferable because they were too polite.
I would like death to find me working in the field.
People do not believe in anything so firmly as what they know least about, and no one comes out with such self-confidence as the writers of all sorts of fables - for example, alchemists, astrologers, soothsayers, palmists ...
Books accompany me throughout my life path and I communicate with them always and everywhere. They comfort me in my old years and in my solitary existence. They relieve me of the burden of tiresome idleness and at any hour give me the opportunity to get rid of unpleasant society. They soften the bouts of physical pain, if it does not reach extreme limits and does not subjugate everything else.
If, on the one hand, our mind grows stronger as a result of contact with vast and developed minds, then, on the other hand, it cannot be imagined how much it loses and degenerates as a result of constant acquaintance and intercourse with base and sickly minds.
I condemn all violence in the upbringing of a young soul, which is raised in respect for honor and freedom. There is something slavish about severity and coercion, and I find that what cannot be done by reason, prudence and skill, cannot be done by force.
Do not worry that you will not be able to die: nature itself, when the time comes, will teach you this thoroughly enough; she will do everything for you, do not occupy your thoughts with this ...
When I play with a cat, it is not known who entertains whom more.
The best way to remember something is to try to forget it.
Michel de Montaigne (February 28, 1533 – September 13, 1592) French thinker, writer, philosopher
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In this church (St. John Lateran, San Giovanni in Laterano) several years ago a large group of Portuguese united in a strange brotherhood. They married each other. Man to man, with all the ceremonies we have at our weddings; they celebrate Easter together, celebrate the same wedding mass, and then sleep and live together. The Roman sages say that if only marriage makes the relationship between a man and a woman legal, then it seemed to these cunning people that this relationship would also be legal if it was confirmed by church sacraments and ceremony.
Of all the illusory aspirations of our world, the most common and widespread is the concern for our good name and glory. In pursuit of this ghostly shadow, this empty sound, intangible and incorporeal, we sacrifice both wealth, and peace, and life, and health - real and essential goods ... Of all the unreasonable human inclinations, this, it seems, is precisely the one from which even philosophers refuse last and most reluctantly. Of all, she is the most ineradicable and stubborn.
Books accompany me throughout my life, and I communicate with them always and everywhere. They comfort me in my old years and in my solitary existence. They relieve me of the burden of tiresome idleness and at any hour give me the opportunity to get rid of unpleasant company. They soften the bouts of physical pain, if it does not reach extreme limits and does not subjugate everything else.
Let the teacher ask the student not only the words of the completed lesson, but also the meaning and the very essence of it, and judge the benefits that he brought, not according to the memory of his pet, but according to his life. And let, explaining something to a student, he will show it to him from a hundred different parties and apply to the set various items to check whether the student has understood properly and to what extent he has mastered it.
Our bodies have more or less the same build and the same tendencies. Our soul, on the other hand, is infinitely changeable and takes the most diverse forms, while possessing the ability to adapt to itself and to its state of sensation of our body and all its other manifestations.
If, on the one hand, our mind grows stronger as a result of contact with vast and developed minds, then, on the other hand, it cannot be imagined how much it loses and degenerates as a result of constant acquaintance and intercourse with base and sickly minds.
I condemn all violence in the upbringing of a young soul, which is raised in respect for honor and freedom. There is something slavish about severity and coercion, and I find that what cannot be done by reason, discretion, and skill, cannot be done by force.
To take a city by storm, to send an embassy, to reign over the people - all these are brilliant deeds. Laughing, loving and being gentle with your family, not contradicting yourself is something rarer, more difficult and less noticeable to others.
There is every reason to assert that ignorance is of two kinds: one, illiterate, precedes science; another, swaggering, follows her. This second kind of ignorance is just as created and generated by science as the first is destroyed and destroyed by it.
A successful marriage rejects love; he tries to repay her with friendship. It is nothing less than a pleasant living together throughout life, full of stability, trust and an infinite number of very tangible mutual services and duties.
If falsehood, like truth, had one face, our position would be much easier. In such a case, we would consider as certain the opposite of what the liar says. But the opposite of truth has a hundred thousand forms and has no limits.
No one voluntarily distributes his property, but everyone shares his time with his neighbor without hesitation. We do not throw anything so willingly as own time, though it is only in relation to the latter that thrift would be useful and worthy of praise.
To think about death is to think about freedom. He who has learned to die has forgotten how to be a slave. The readiness to die frees us from all submission and coercion. And there is no evil in life for one who has realized that losing life is not evil.
The extreme degree of fear is expressed in the fact that, succumbing to it, we are even imbued with the very courage that he deprived us of at the moment when it was necessary to fulfill our duty and defend our honor. That's what I fear more than fear itself.
French writer, Renaissance thinker, philosopher, author of the book "Experiments" - Michel Ekem de Montaigne was born on February 28, 1533 in the south-west of France, in the rich family castle of Montaigne, owned by his father.
Father - Pierre Ekem, a participant in the Italian wars, was at one time the mayor of Bordeaux, mother - Antoinette de Lopez - from a family of wealthy Aragonese Jews.
Little Michel's education began at the age of two. For education, the father used his own pedagogical liberal methodology. His teacher, a German, had no command of French and spoke to Michel exclusively in Latin. Moreover, his father and mother also spoke to him only in Latin, so from childhood Montaigne mastered Latin as his native language.
His father sought to instill in Michel a love of science, when the boy was six years old, he sent him to a college in the city of Bordeaux. After graduating from college, he became a lawyer.
In his youth, Michel Montaigne was keenly interested in political activities. His father purchased for him the post of councilor of the Parlement de Bordeaux. Montaigne enjoyed a reputation as an educated, learned man, many statesmen, the thinkers of that time were his good friends.
In 1565, Montaigne married, having received a substantial dowry, which strengthened him financial situation. When his father died in 1568, Michel became the heir to the family estate. He sold his judicial position, retired and from 1571 settled in the castle.
In 1572, the 38-year-old Montaigne began work on the main work in his creative biography- philosophical and literary "Experiments", in which he expressed thoughts about historical events days past and today.
As Montaigne wrote: "...tired of the slavish stay at court and public duties...decided to hide in the arms of the muses, patronesses of wisdom." As a result, in 1580 the first two books of his "Experiments" were published - a work that brought Montaigne wide fame during his lifetime, and later, world fame. For many centuries this book will be one of the favorites of the reading public.
In 1580-1581. the writer traveled in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Italy. The impressions of this trip are reflected in his diary.
At the same time, Montaigne again activates his social activity. The heir to the throne, Henry of Navarre, showed favor to Montaigne, but all his thoughts were devoted to the "Experiments", he tried to spend as much time as possible in solitude.
However, Montaigne's wishes were not destined to come true. In 1581 he was elected mayor of the city of Bordeaux. Apparently, this was during the travel of 1580-1581. (“The citizens of Bordeaux elected me mayor of their city when I was far from France and even further from the thought of it”).
In 1586–1587 Montaigne, relieved of his duties as mayor, continued literary pursuits and wrote additions to the first books and the third book of the "Experiments", which were largely autobiographical in nature.
In 1588 Montaigne met young girl, Marie de Gournay, who was a passionate admirer of his ideas. Marie brightened Montaigne's loneliness and became for him someone like adopted daughter. After the death of an idol, she published posthumous edition"Experiments", on which he continued to work until his last breath.
Michel de Montaigne died on September 13, 1592 from an exacerbation of a stone disease that had long tormented him in his family castle.
Biography
Famous French writer and Renaissance philosopher, author of the book "Experiments". Montaigne was born in a family castle near Bordeaux. His father, a participant in the Italian wars, Pierre Eykem (who received the aristocratic title "de Montaigne") was at one time the mayor of this city; died in 1568.
Mother - Antoinette de Lopez, from a family of wealthy Aragonese Jews. IN early childhood Michel was brought up according to his father's liberal-humanistic pedagogical methodology - his teacher, a German, did not speak French at all and spoke with Michel exclusively in Latin. During the Huguenot wars, Montaigne often acted as an intermediary between the warring parties, he was equally respected by the Catholic king Henry III and the Protestant Henry of Navarre.
In 1565 Montaigne married, having received a substantial dowry. After the death of his father in 1568, he inherited family estate Montaigne, where he settled in 1571, having sold his judicial position and retired. In 1572, at the age of 38, Montaigne began to write his "Experiments" (the first two books were published in 1580). His close friend was the philosopher Étienne de la Boesie, author of Discourses on Voluntary Slavery, parts of which Montaigne included in his Essays.
In 1580-1581. the writer traveled in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Italy. The impressions of this journey are reflected in a diary published only in 1774. The writer died on September 13, 1592 during mass.
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Aphorisms
There is no such decrepit old man who, remembering Methuselah, would not expect to live another twenty years.
The most important thing is to instill a taste and love for science; otherwise we will bring up just donkeys loaded with bookish wisdom.
Nothing in nature is useless.
The doctor, when first starting to treat his patient, should do it gracefully, cheerfully and with pleasantness for the patient; and a gloomy physician will never succeed in his craft.
All means, provided they are not dishonorable, that can save us from disasters and troubles, are not only permissible, but also deserve all praise.
Life in itself is neither good nor evil: it is a receptacle for both good and evil, depending on what you yourself have turned it into.
Knowledge does not need to be attached to the soul, it needs to be implanted into it; it does not need to be directed at her, they need to impregnate her.
Knowledge is a double-edged weapon that only burdens and can injure its owner if the hand that holds it is weak and does not know how to use it well ...
When you do good, you yourself experience a certain joyful satisfaction and legitimate pride that accompanies a clear conscience.
The extreme degree of fear is expressed in the fact that, succumbing to it, we are even imbued with the very courage that he deprived us of at the moment when it was necessary to fulfill our duty and defend our honor. That's what I fear more than fear itself.
He who is afraid of suffering is already suffering from fear.
Whoever is infected with the fear of disease is already infected with the disease of fear.
Who is very lean, he willingly wears a jersey, who has little content - they inflate him with words.
Deceit is the worst vice.
People do not believe in anything so firmly as what they know least about, and no one comes forward with such self-confidence as the writers of all sorts of fables - for example, alchemists, astrologers, soothsayers, palmists ...
The measure of life is not in its duration, but in how you use it.
I do not know of marriages that break up more easily or are more difficult than those concluded because of passion for beauty or because of love.
You can also learn from the enemy.
A well-built brain is worth more than a well-filled brain.
We must be able to endure what cannot be avoided.
The worst state of a man is when he ceases to be conscious and in control of himself.
A true friend is one whom I would trust in everything that concerns me more than myself. A strong imagination creates an event.
Science is a great ornament and a very useful tool...
Science is an excellent drug; but no drug is so stable as to be preserved without being spoiled and changed if the vessel in which it is stored is bad.
Science is a very difficult business. Science is suitable only for strong minds.
Our wit seems to be more characteristic of speed and suddenness, while the mind - solidity and slowness.
It is not without reason that it is said that one who does not really rely on his memory, it is not easy for him to lie smoothly.
Do not worry that you will not be able to die: nature itself, when the time comes, will teach you this thoroughly enough; she will do everything for you, do not occupy your thoughts with this ...
Not everything that fluctuates falls.
I can't imagine how one can be content with second-hand knowledge; although the knowledge of others may teach us something, one is wise only by one's own wisdom.
It is impossible to have an honest and sincere argument with a fool.
It is not enough that education does not spoil us, it is necessary that it change us for the better.
There is no answer more humiliating than a contemptuous silence.
There is no desire more natural than the desire for knowledge...
No passion darkens the clarity of judgment to such an extent as anger.
Neither that which precedes death nor that which follows it belongs to it.
No one voluntarily distributes his property, but everyone shares his time with his neighbor without hesitation. We throw away nothing more readily than our own time, although it is only in relation to the latter that thrift would be useful and worthy of praise.
Accusations against oneself are always believed, self-praise - never.
Frank speech, like wine and love, evokes the same frankness.
Nature is a pleasant mentor, and not so much pleasant as careful and faithful.
Nature can and does everything.
There is no end to our inquisitiveness, the contentment of the mind is a sign of its limitation or fatigue.
The most outstanding talents are ruined by idleness.
The shortest way to win glory is to do with conscience what we do for glory.
The best proof of wisdom is a continuous good mood.
It would be necessary to have measures of influence established by law that would curb mediocre and worthless hacks, as is done with regard to idlers and parasites.
Death must be the same as life; we don't become different just because we die.
Among other sins, drunkenness seems to me a particularly rude and vile vice.
Old people should not think about death: let them take care of how best to loosen the beds in the garden.
Fear either gives wings to the legs, or chains them to the ground.
Human happiness does not consist at all in dying well, but in that. to live well.
Those who claim that they have many thoughts in their heads, but are unable to express them due to lack of eloquence, have not learned to understand themselves.
For those who have not comprehended the science of good, any other science brings only harm.
To the one who said to Socrates: "Thirty tyrants condemned you to death", the latter replied: "Nature condemned them to death."
Cowardice is the mother of cruelty.
Animals have that noble feature that a lion never becomes, out of cowardice, the slave of another lion, and a horse the slave of another horse.
A successful marriage rejects love; he tries to repay her with friendship. It is nothing less than a pleasant living together throughout life, full of stability, trust and an infinite number of very tangible mutual services and duties.
The mind that has no definite purpose is lost; to be everywhere is to be nowhere.
Stubbornness and excessive ardor in a dispute is the surest sign of stupidity.
Whether the events of life are good or bad depends largely on how we perceive them.
What could be more difficult than to protect ourselves from the enemy, who put on the guise of our most devoted friend.
It takes more intelligence to teach another than to teach yourself.
I speak the truth insofar as I dare to speak it; the older I get, I dare to do it less and less.
I have observed only such an action of the rod - it either dulls or embitters.
I have often met people who were impolite precisely because they were too polite, and insufferable because they were too polite.
I condemn all violence in the upbringing of a young soul, which is raised in respect for honor and freedom. There is something slavish about severity and coercion, and I find that what cannot be done by reason, discretion, and skill, cannot be done by force.
I would like death to find me working in the field.