“Every one, as Pliny says, is a good doctrine to himself, provided he be capable of discovering himself near at hand. Here, this is not my doctrine, ’tis my study; and is not the lesson of another, but my own. And if I communicate it, it ought not to be ill taken, for that which is of use to me, may also, peradventure, be useful to another.”

— Montaigne, 1588 (Cotton translation)

“My father believed that he could not teach you anything better than how to know and employ yourself . . . The others teach wisdom; he un-teaches foolishness”

— Marie de Gournay, 1595

“For profitable Recreation, that Noble French Knight, the Lord de Montaigne is most excellent”

— William Cornwallis, 1600

“The manner in which Montaigne wrote is the most usual, the most suggestive, the most remembered, and the oftenest quoted, because it is entirely composed of thoughts born from the common talk of life.”

— Blaise Pascal, 1670

“His Essays are a texture of strong sayings, sentences, and ends of verses, which he so puts together, that they have an extraordinary force”

— John Locke, 1685

“This is (in my Opinion) the very best Book for Information of Manners, that has been writ. This Author says nothing but what everyone feels att the Heart. Whoever deny it, are not more Wise than Montaigne, but less honest.”

— Alexander Pope, 1706

“the least methodical of all philosophers , but the wisest and the most amiable”

— Voltaire, 1764

“I love Montagne [sic], I read him with pleasure; not that I think always like him, but because he gives me room to reflect, and to adopt a like or a contrary opinion to that of his own. Madame de Sevigny said, when she read his Essays, she imagined she was walking with him in her garden, and that they were conversing together. I think so likewise; and I find that Montagne [sic] appears frequently to advance propositions in order to bring on a little dispute which animates conversation, and renders it more lively and inte- resting: this is assuredly a good method of engaging the attention of the reader.”

— René-Louis de Voyer Argenson, 1789

“The sublime Essays of Montaigne were of great value to me, and perhaps I owe the little I have ever thought to him. His ten small volumes occupied exclusively the pockets of my carriage, and were my constant and faithful companions. They delighted and instructed me, and they flattered by ignorance and pride, for I used to open them at random and read a page or two and throw them down to abandon myself to my own reflections.”

— Vittorio Alfieri, 1803

“If we believe everything that Montaigne advises, and do all that he recommends, we may need to add thereto, and to take the pupil somewhat further than he did: but we must pass by the road which he took; if he did not say all, all that he did say is true, and before we may pretend to outstrip him, we must endeavour to overtake him.”

— François Guizot, 1812

“You read Montaigne, and you are in wonder at the profusion of wise observations . . . barrelled up from the vast commonplaces of mankind.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1831

“Read Montaigne, read him slowly, carefully! He will calm you . . . Read him from one end to the other, and, when you have finished, try again . . . But do not read, as children read, for fun, or as the ambitious read, to instruct you. No. Read to live.”

— Gustave Flaubert, 1867

“In Montaigne good sense gushes forth at every word.”

— Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, 1870

“The joy of living on this earth is increased by the existence of such a man . . . [Montaigne] contains ideas of the kind that produce ideas.”

— Friedrich Nietzsche, 1874/1878

“Learning by rote produces only short-lived impressions. Such a course promotes mind-wandering; it leaves no permanent trace, and it usually breaks down the health. It is not study; for long ago Montaigne taught that learning by heart is not learning .”

— George Fellows, 1888

“Books to which every serious mind of superior order occupying any active post of authority in the world naturally inclines . . . unconventional writers like Montaigne, who, free from cant and convention, honestly and in the spirit of common sense philosophize upon realities.”

— Herman Melville, 1891

“We find educational reformers, like Montaigne . . . vehemently denouncing all learning which is acquired on hearsay, and asserting that even if beliefs happen to be true, they do not constitute knowledge unless they have grown up in and been tested by personal experience.”

— John Dewey, 1916

“He refused to teach; he refused to preach; he kept on saying that he was just like other people. All his effort was to write himself down, to communicate, to tell the truth, and that is a ‘rugged road, more than it seems’.”

— Virginia Woolf, 1925

“It is hardly too much to say that Montaigne is the most essential author to know . . . he succeeded in giving expression to scepticism of every human being.”

— T. S. Eliot, 1931

“In the two great essays on pedagogy, we now search above all for universal directives, for methods applicable to the formation of the mind in all times and places, for all classes of people.”

— Pierre Villey, 1933

“Whether he originates or appropriates, Montaigne is always himself, and his essay [on education] remains the most readable and fascinating ever written on the subject.”
— Jacob Zeitlin, 1934

“He is only a philosopher in the manner of Socrates, whom he revered above all others because he left behind no dogma, no teachings, no law, no system, only an example: the man who seeks himself in all and who seeks all in himself.”

— Stefan Zweig, 1942

“Montaigne is the greatest writer of any time, anywhere. I literally read him every week . . . Not so much for what he says, but it’s a bit like meeting a friend, you know.”

— Orson Welles, 1958

“Montaigne [puts] not self-satisfied understanding but a consciousness astonished at itself at the core of human existence.”

— Maurice Merleau-Ponty, 1964

“And here is the marvel of his book: if Montaigne is an ordinary man, then what an encouragement, what a piece of work is, after all, an ordinary man! You cannot help but hope.”

— Lewis Thomas, 1979

“Montaigne is quite refreshing to read after the strains of a modern education since he fully accepted human weaknesses and understood that no philosophy could be effective unless it took into account our deeply ingrained imperfections, the limitations of our rationality, the flaws that make us human. It is not that he was ahead of his time; it would be better said that later scholars (advocating rationality) were backward.”

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb, 2012

“Perhaps we should be reading the Essays to stimulate our own thinking rather than trying to uncover his.”

— Peter Mack, 2016

“Everyone is always reading Montaigne perhaps because Montaigne was always reading: his essays are made of quotations. He cites and then he ruminates on his citations. Then he ruminates on his ruminations about his citations. Then an anecdote occurs, which brings to mind a citation, over which he mulls. Reading Michel de Montaigne is reading him reading, and it’s also reading how others have read him. These layers of reading feel particularly dense and web-like; it’s like being inside a muscle.”

— Hannah Brooks-Motl, 2016

“It’s often the old ideas that illuminate the new ones, sometimes better than a good newspaper editorial or a contemporary philosopher. Montaigne's ideas are as important to know today as previously. There are ideas which are timeless and that shed a light on reality.”

— Noémi Lefebvre, 2021