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Michel de Montaigne Quotes About Life Advice

Browse 6 quotations connecting Michel de Montaigne with Life Advice, with meanings, source notes and related themes.

Sources

Where these life advice quotations appear

Sources represented here include Essays of Montaigne — Book III, Essays of Montaigne — Book I, Essays of Montaigne — Book II.

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Quotations

6 matching quotations with meanings and source context

Source identified1
Nothing noble can be performed without danger.

“Nothing noble can be performed without danger.”

Avoiding every danger can also prevent worthy action; prudence needs to distinguish reckless exposure from risks that meaningful conduct sometimes requires.

Source details

Essays of Montaigne, Book I, Chapter XXIII, ‘Various Events from the Same Counsel,’ Charles Cotton translation edited by William Carew Hazlitt (1877); Project Gutenberg Volume 04 #3584 / Complete Essays #3600. Montaigne argues that excessive security-minded distrust can destroy the courage required for noble action; the reviewed direct evidence is the matching Wikisource chapter transcription.

Source identified2
My trade and art is to live.

“My trade and art is to live.”

Montaigne makes lived experience itself the central field of inquiry, treating ordinary life as material for reflection rather than a distraction from philosophy.

Source details

Essays of Montaigne, Book II, Chapter VI, “Use Makes Perfect,” Charles Cotton translation, W. C. Hazlitt 1877 edition, Project Gutenberg #3600. “My trade and art is to live” occurs while Montaigne defends speaking from his own sense, experience and practice. It remains early-modern autobiographical essay and moral reflection rather than modern therapeutic or behavioral-science evidence.

Source identified3
He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.

“He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.”

Anticipatory fear can add suffering before any feared event occurs, effectively extending pain through imagination and expectation.

Source details

Essays of Montaigne, Book III, Chapter XIII, “Of Experience,” Charles Cotton translation; Project Gutenberg Volume 19 #3599 / Complete Essays #3600. Montaigne argues that anticipatory fear can add suffering before the feared event arrives.

Source identified4
’Tis my opinion that a man should lend himself to others, and only give himself to himself.

“’Tis my opinion that a man should lend himself to others, and only give himself to himself.”

Montaigne distinguishes participating in other people’s affairs from surrendering one’s whole inward life to them: engagement can be generous without allowing every external demand to possess the will.

Source details

Essays of Montaigne, Book III, Chapter X, “Of Managing the Will,” Charles Cotton translation; Project Gutenberg Volume 18 #3598 / Complete Essays #3600. Montaigne describes lending oneself to external affairs without allowing them to possess the whole will.

Source identified5
We must learn to suffer what we cannot evade; our life, like the harmony of the world, is composed of contrary things.

“We must learn to suffer what we cannot evade; our life, like the harmony of the world, is composed of contrary things.”

Montaigne treats an imperfect mixture of pleasant and painful conditions as part of ordinary life: wisdom includes learning to live with what cannot be escaped instead of demanding a life made only of agreeable notes.

Source details

Essays of Montaigne, Book III, Chapter XIII, “Of Experience,” Charles Cotton translation; Project Gutenberg Volume 19 #3599 / Complete Essays #3600. Montaigne compares life’s unavoidable mixture of pleasant and painful conditions to harmony made from contrary tones.

Source identified6
Right occasion and opportunity have their privileges, and often hold out to ordinary folk what they deny to kings.

“Right occasion and opportunity have their privileges, and often hold out to ordinary folk what they deny to kings.”

Montaigne observes that access and success do not follow rank mechanically: timing, circumstance and temperament can open an ordinary person’s path even when status or power fails to secure the same result.

Source details

The Journal of Montaigne’s Travels in Italy, Volume II, entry for March 6, 1581 during his visit to the Vatican Library, W. G. Waters translation, Project Gutenberg #70839. The sentence follows Montaigne’s surprise that he gained access where the French ambassador had failed; it is first-person journal reflection, not a general law that opportunity always defeats privilege.

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