Named source · 1580

Essays of Montaigne — Book II Quotes by Michel de Montaigne: Context & Meanings

1 quotation linked to Essays of Montaigne — Book II by or associated with Michel de Montaigne, with source notes, explanations and related topics.

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About this source

Book II of Montaigne’s Essays, first published with the 1580 collection

Topics and ideas

Experience, living, self-observation, learning, judgment and Montaigne’s practice of treating ordinary life as material for philosophy.

English wording

Translation

Charles Cotton — Translator · French → English

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“My trade and art is to live.”

Michel de Montaigne

Meaning & context

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.

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