Michel De Montaigne
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (; February 28, 1533 – September 13, 1592) was one of the most influential writers of the French Renaissance, known for popularising the essay as a literary genre, and commonly thought of as the father of modern skepticism. He became famous for his effortless ability to merge serious intellectual exercises with casual anecdotes and autobiography—and his massive volume Essais (translated literally as "Attempts" or "Trials") contains, to this day, some of the most widely influential essays ever written. Montaigne had a direct influence on writers the world over, including René Descartes, Blaise Pascal, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, William Hazlitt, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Friedrich Nietzsche, Stefan Zweig, Eric Hoffer, Isaac Asimov, and possibly on the later works of William Shakespeare.
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Famous quotes containing the words michel de montaigne, michel de and/or montaigne:
“What we are told of the inhabitants of Brazil, that they never die but of old age, is attributed to the tranquility and serenity of their climate; I rather attribute it to the tranquility and serenity of their souls, which are free from all passion, thought, or any absorbing and unpleasant labors. Those people spend their lives in an admirable simplicity and ignorance, without letters, without law, without king, without any manner of religion.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“These examples, though foreign to us, are not strange, if we consider, as our experience often tells us, how custom dulls the senses.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“The mind that has no fixed goal loses itself; for, as they say, to be everywhere is to be nowhere.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)