# The finest lines from Montaigne's Essays

Montaigne's lines that are still quoted, from 'What do I know?' to 'Because it was him, because it was me', with the book and chapter of the Essays.

- 11 votes · 13 items
- Oct 30, 2022 · monsieurglobetrotteur
- https://even.best/en/l/2101/the-finest-lines-from-montaigne-s-essays

## Top 12

1. **Because it was him, because it was me.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Essays, I, 28, Of Friendship, about La Boétie.
2. **Every man bears the whole form of the human condition.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Essays, III, 2.
3. **What do I know?** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Montaigne's motto, Essays, II, 12.
4. **Reader, I am myself the matter of my book.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — To the Reader, preface to the Essays.
5. **I want death to find me planting my cabbages.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Essays, I, 20.
6. **Better a well-made head than a well-filled one.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Essays, I, 26, On the Education of Children.
7. **The world is but a perpetual see-saw.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Essays, III, 2.
8. **Truly, man is a marvellously vain, diverse and wavering subject.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Essays, I, 1.
9. **The true mirror of our words is the course of our lives.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Essays, I, 26.
10. **He who would teach men to die would teach them to live.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Essays, I, 20.
11. **The thing I fear most is fear.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Essays, I, 18.
12. **When I play with my cat, who knows if she is not passing her time with me more than I with her?** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Essays, II, 12.
13. **Speech belongs half to the one who speaks and half to the one who listens.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Essays, III, 13.

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