When Michel de Montaigne retired to his family estate in 1572, aged 38, he tells us that he wanted to write his famous Essays as a distraction for his idle mind. He neither wanted nor expected people ...

What Happened to Civility: The Promise and Failure of Montaigne’s Modern Project by Ann Hartle (2022, University of Notre Dame Press), 190 pages. Five centuries after the life of Michel de Montaigne, ...

On the last day of February 1571, a short, thickset Gascon nobleman retired from public life to the third floor of a circular tower – “the most useless place in the house” – where he kept a library of ...

In a series exploring the work of scholar and writer Michel de Montaigne, thinker and historian Theodore Zeldin considers to what extent Montaigne's philosophy holds true today. Show more A series of ...

The untranslatable and intriguing notion of ethos (mores, goodness, character, etc.) contrasts in Ancient rhetoric with pathos and logos, the other two pisteis or means of persuasion. Rhetorical ethos ...

Montaigne is sometimes thought of as living a cold, solitary life, because he liked to spend time looking into himself, or occupying what he called his "room behind the shop" – his private mental ...

This article contains content that is not available. British Philosopher Alain De Botton looks at the problem of self-esteem from the perspective of Michel de Montaigne (16th Century), the French ...

Pet owners may ask a question similar to that asked by French philosopher Montaigne (1552-1592): “When I play with my cat, who knows if I am not a pastime to her more than she is to me?” Montaigne ...

There is a well-known quote that’s often attributed to Aristotle: “To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.” As far as I know, it was misattributed to him; at least he didn’t say it in ...