Every other knowledge is harmful to him who does not have knowledge of goodness.
Use itGS4/Essay: knowledge without goodness is harmful; values in education.
Quotes / Thinkers / Michel de Montaigne
Thinker · 39 quotes
Michel de Montaigne quotes for UPSC
39 sourced quotes by Michel de Montaigne on character & virtue, education & knowledge, integrity & honesty, courage, truth & wisdom, with a use case for each in GS4, Essay and interviews.
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The laws of conscience, which we pretend to be derived from nature, proceed from custom.
— Michel de MontaigneCh. 22. Of Custom (tr. Cotton, rev. W. Hazlitt, 1842)
Use itGS4: conscience shaped by culture and custom; sources of ethics.
Saying is one thing, doing another.
— Michel de MontaigneBook II, Ch. 31. Of Anger
Use itGS4: gap between words and deeds; walk the talk.
Nature forms us for ourselves, not for others; to be, not to seem.
— Michel de MontaigneBook II, Ch. 37. Of the Resemblance of Children to their Brothers
Use itGS4/Life: authenticity — to be, not to seem.
I speak truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare; and I dare a little the more as I grow older.
— Michel de MontaigneBook iii. Chap 2. Of Repentance
Use itGS4: speaking truth courageously; candour grows with age.
Habit is a second nature.
Use itGS4/Life: habit becomes character; building good habits.
One may be humble out of pride.
— Michel de MontaigneBook II, Ch. 17. Of Presumption
Use itGS4: false humility as a form of pride; authenticity.
How many worthy men have we seen survive their own reputation!
— Michel de MontaigneBook II, Ch. 16. Of Glory
Use itEssay on legacy: many worthy people outlive their reputation.
I find that the best virtue I have has in it some tincture of vice.
— Michel de MontaigneBook II, Ch. 20. That we taste nothing pure
Use itGS4: moral humility — even our best virtue has some vice.
Virtue refuses facility for her companion ... the easy, gentle, and sloping path that guides the footsteps of a good natural disposition is not the path of true virtue. It demands a rough and thorny road.
— Michel de MontaigneCh. 11. Of Cruelty (tr. Donald M. Frame)
Use itGS4: virtue is tested on hard roads, not easy ones; ethics under pressure.
For my own part, I cannot without grief see so much as an innocent beast pursued and killed that has no defence, and from which we have received no offence at all.
— Michel de MontaigneCh. 11 (tr. Cotton, 1685)
Use itGS4/Essay on animal welfare: empathy for defenceless creatures.
The thing I fear most is fear.
Use itLife: fear of fear itself paralyses more than danger.
Things are not so painful and difficult of themselves, but our weakness or cowardice makes them so.
— Michel de MontaigneCh. 14 (tr. Cotton, rev. W. Carew Hazlitt, 1877)
Use itLife: difficulty often lies in our fear, not the task.
It is the part of cowardice, not of courage, to go and crouch in a hole under a massive tomb, to avoid the blows of fortune.
— Michel de MontaigneCh. 3. A Usage of the Island of Cea (tr. George B. Ives, 1925)
Use itLife: hiding from risk is cowardice; face fortune's blows.
It would be better to have no laws at all than to have them in such profusion as we do.
Use itGS2: over-legislation and regulatory overload; case for simpler laws.
There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.
— Michel de MontaigneBook III, Ch. 9. Of Vanity
Use itGS2: over-criminalisation — no one is blameless under too many laws.
Every man bears the whole stamp of the human condition.
Use itGS4/Essay: shared humanity — every person carries the whole human condition.
The plague of man is boasting of his knowledge.
Use itInterview/GS4: intellectual arrogance as a flaw; humility in knowledge.
There is no wish more natural than the wish to know.
Use itEssay on curiosity: the desire to know is the most natural human wish.
A strong memory is commonly coupled with infirm judgment.
— Michel de MontaigneCh. 9. Of Liars (tr. Cotton, rev. W. Carew Hazlitt, 1877)
Use itInterview/Essay: memory is not judgement; rote learning vs critical thinking.
We must not attach knowledge to the mind, we have to incorporate it there.
Use itEssay on education: internalise knowledge rather than memorise it.
Since I would rather make of him an able man than a learned man, I would also urge that care be taken to choose a guide with a well-made rather than a well-filled head.
— Michel de MontaigneCh. 26. On the Education of Children
Use itEssay on education: a well-made head over a well-filled one — judgement over information.
Arts and sciences are not cast in a mould, but are formed and perfected by degrees, by often handling and polishing, as bears leisurely lick their cubs into form.
— Michel de MontaigneBook II, Ch. 12. Apology for Raimond Sebond
Use itEssay on innovation: arts and sciences mature gradually through refinement.
There is, nevertheless, a certain respect and a general duty of humanity that ties us, not only to beasts that have life and sense, but even to trees and plants.
— Michel de MontaigneBook II, Ch. 11. Of Cruelty
Use itGS3/Essay on environmental ethics: duty of humanity extends to animals and plants.
The souls of emperors and cobblers are cast in the same mold...The same reason that makes us wrangle with a neighbor creates a war betwixt princes.
— Michel de MontaigneCh. 12 (tr. Cotton, rev. W. Carew Hazlitt, 1877)
Use itEssay on war: the same petty passions drive neighbour quarrels and wars between nations.
Nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know.
Use itEssay on misinformation: strongest beliefs often rest on least knowledge.
For truth itself has not the privilege to be spoken at all times and in all sorts.
— Michel de MontaigneBook III, Ch. 13. Of Experience
Use itGS4: truth must be spoken with discretion and tact; ethics of disclosure.
What of a truth that is bounded by these mountains and is falsehood to the world that lives beyond?
Use itEssay on relativism: truths bounded by borders; cultural perspective.
No matter that we may mount on stilts, we still must walk on our own legs. And on the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.
Use itGS4: humility for those in power — on the highest throne we remain human.
He who should teach men to die would at the same time teach them to live.
— Michel de MontaigneCh. 18. That Men are not to judge of our Happiness till after Death (tr. Cotton, rev. W. Hazlitt, 1842)
Use itEssay on meaning of life: accepting mortality teaches how to live.
I live from day to day, and content myself with having enough to meet my present and ordinary needs; for the extraordinary, all the provision in the world could not suffice.
Use itGS4/Life: contentment with needs; limits of material accumulation.
Whatever can be done another day can be done today.
— Michel de MontaigneCh. 20. Of the Force of Imagination (tr. Donald M. Frame)
Use itLife: beat procrastination — do it today.
How many things served us yesterday for articles of faith, which today are fables for us?
Use itEssay on changing beliefs: today's certainties become tomorrow's fables.
The oldest and best known evil was ever more supportable than one that was new and untried.
— Michel de MontaigneBook III, Ch. 9. Of Vanity
Use itEssay on reform resistance: people prefer familiar evils to untried change.
A wise man never loses anything, if he has himself.
— Michel de MontaigneCh. 38. Of Solitude (tr. Cotton, rev. W. Hazlitt, 1842)
Use itLife: self-possession as the one loss-proof asset after a setback.
The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.
Use itEssay on autonomy: true greatness is self-mastery, belonging to oneself.
Malice sucks up the greatest part of its own venom, and poisons itself.
— Michel de MontaigneOf Repentance, Book III, Ch. 2
Use itGS4: malice harms its bearer most; why hatred is self-destructive.
All passions that suffer themselves to be relished and digested are but moderate.
— Michel de MontaigneCh. 2. Of Sorrow (tr. Cotton, rev. W. Hazlitt, 1842)
Use itLife: passions that can be tempered are manageable; moderation.
Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself.
— Michel de MontaigneCh. 10. Of Managing the Will
Use itLife: serve others but keep yourself; avoiding burnout.