Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
He claims that despising our own existence is the most brutal of human weaknesses.
In plain terms
Hating yourself is the worst thing a person can do.
What can you take from it?
Respect your existence to avoid self-destructive habits.

Where it applies

  • depression
  • self-criticism
  • mental health

Putting it to work

  • practice self-kindness
  • accept flaws
  • value life

Questions to consider

  • Why do you judge yourself so harshly?
  • Is self-hate a vice or a symptom?

Another view

Self-loathing is complex and may need professional help to fix.

More from Michel de Montaigne

  1. Nothing prints more lively in our minds than something we wish to forget.

    Permalink to quote #107
  2. Once conform, once do what others do because they do it, and a kind of lethargy steals over all the finer senses of the soul.

    Permalink to quote #111
  3. Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.

    Permalink to quote #106

Related quotes

  1. To be human means to feel inferior.

    Alfred AdlerAlfred Adler quote #2
  2. The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less.

    Eldridge CleaverEldridge Cleaver quote #2
  3. L'amour-propre est le plus grand de tous les flatteurs.

    Francois de La RochefoucauldFrancois de La Rochefoucauld quote #3