“Things are not so painful and…” — Michel de Montaigne

Things are not so painful and difficult of themselves, but our weakness or cowardice makes them so.

— Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592), Essais (wr. 1571–92; pub. 1580–95) — Book I, Ch. 14 (tr. Cotton, rev. W. Carew Hazlitt, 1877)

Courage and overcoming setbacks

What it means

Much of the difficulty we feel comes from our own fear rather than from the task. Montaigne asks us to separate the thing from our reaction to it.

Michel de Montaigne — French author and philosopher (1533–1592).

Source: Essais (wr. 1571–92; pub. 1580–95) — Book I, Ch. 14 (tr. Cotton, rev. W. Carew Hazlitt, 1877)
Reference: Michel de Montaigne on Wikiquote
Checked: Wording and source taken from the sourced section of the author’s Wikiquote page, which cites the work given here (accessed 2026-10-11).
Copyright: Public domain: the author died in 1592.

The explanation above is ToDoMatriX’s own reading of the quote, not the author’s words.

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