'Retain a healthy contempt for your fellow-men, and especially for those who urge you to do so.'

« Méfiez-vous de tout le monde et en particulier de ceux qui conseillent de vous méfier. »

 

These words are not by Montaigne, but by his inspirational bosom friend and soul-mate Etienne de la Boétie.  Some people think that la Boétie's seminal work,  THE ANTI-DICTATOR, might well have been written by Montaigne.  Its revolutionary message can be summarised thus:  

 

The great mystery of politics is the obedience given to rulers.
Why do people agree to be looted, exploited, forced to bear arms, and in many other ways allow themselves to be oppressed by tyrants, governments and petty overlords ? 

Not because of fear -  for our consent is required. And that consent can be non-violently withdrawn.

 

All following quotations
are by Michel de Montaigne himself. 

____________________

 

 

De combien est le langage faux moins sociable que le silence.

Silence is much less anti-social than false conversation.

C'est une absolue perfection, et comme divine, de savoir jouir loyalement de son être....

To know how to enjoy being truly yourself is utter perfection - and  next to divine.

We seek other ways of being because we don't understand how to make use of our own, and we constantly look outside ourselves because we don't realise what is inside.

Ne cherchons pas hors de nous notre mal, il est chez nous, il est planté en nos entrailles.

Suffering and evil come not from without, but from within our very bones.

Ne faites donc pas comme l'avare, qui perd beaucoup pour ne vouloir rien perdre.

Better not to be miserly, miserable hoarders, who lose almost everything in order to lose nothing.

... la reconnaissance de l'ignorance est l'un des plus beaux et plus sûrs témoignages de jugement que je trouve.

I have found that a person's recognition of his own ignorance is one of the surest and most admirable indications of his good judgement.

Vaut-il pas mieux demeurer en suspens que de s'infrasquer en tant d'erreurs que l'humaine fantaisie a produites?

Would it not be better to live in abeyance than be involved in all the mischief and misjudgements produced by human delusions ?

Dédaignons cette faim de renommée et d'honneur, basse et belitresse, qui nous le fait coquiner de toute sorte de gens.

Spurn that hunger for honour and renown, worthless and base, which makes us puppets and pimps of all and sundry.

Puis que ce n'est par conscience, au moins par ambition refusons l'ambition.

If not because of conscience, at least because of ambition we should decline ambition.

On ne boit pas, on donne un baiser et le vin vous rend une caresse.

One doesn't drink - you offer your lips and the wine returns a caress.

Le silence et la modestie sont qualités très commodes à la conversation.

Silence and modesty are very useful qualities in conversation.

La vaillance a ses limites, comme les autres vertus, lesquelles franchies, on se trouve dans le train du vice.

Like any other virtue, courage has a boundary, beyond which it starts to go bad.

Notre religion n'a point eu de plus assuré fondement humain que le mépris de la vie.

Our religion has had no surer foundation than contempt for life.

Satellite photo

- d'après Google Earth.

La flèche rouge indique la Tour Montaigne.
The red arrow shows Montaigne's tower.
.

La raison va toujours et torte, et boiteuse, et déhanchée.

Reason is forever defective, lame and lop-sided.

La philosophie a des discours pour la naissance des hommes comme pour la décrépitude.

Philosophy can discuss birth as well as decrepitude.

...j'aimerais mieux, à l'aventure, être le second ou le troisième à Périgueux que le premier à Paris.

I would rather, if it were possible, be the second or third most important man in Périgueux than the most important man in Paris.

La reconnaissance de l'ignorance est l'un des plus beaux et plus sûrs témoignages de jugement que je trouve.

Recognition of one's own ignorance is one of the finest and surest indications of good judgement.

La vertu n'avoue rien que ce qui se fait par elle et pour elle seule.

Virtue admits only to being for its own sake.

Tant sage qu'il voudra, mais enfin c'est un homme: qu'est-il plus caduc, plus mésirable et plus de néant?

No matter how wise he be, a man is just a human : is there any [creature] more vacuous, miserable and null ?

Les jeux des enfants ne sont pas des jeux, et les faut juger en eux comme leurs plus sérieuses actions.

Children's games are not just games, but should be recognised as their most serious activities.

Les hommes sont comme les pommes : quand on les entasse, ils pourrissent.

Men are like apples: when they are boxed up they rot.

La Tour de Montaigne • Montaigne's Tower

His library was on the top floor,
and held, on shelves five high, over a thousand books - which he dipped into for inspiration, rather than reading for mere information which he despised. Books were, of course, extremely expensive, scarcely a hundred years after the invention of the movable-type printing-press.

Savoir par cœur n'est pas savoir : c'est tenir ce qu'on a donné en garde à sa mémoire.

To know by heart is not to know at all, but to retain what has been inserted into our memories.

Ni les hommes, ni leurs vies ne se mesurent à l'aune.

Neither people nor their lives can be expressed by statistics.