Vol. 06 · Misquoted ·Book ·194 of 348
"My life has been filled with terrible misfortunes, most of which never happened. — Montaigne"
They never said that.
What people say
"My life has been filled with terrible misfortunes, most of which never happened. — Montaigne"
What was actually said
"Qui craint de souffrir, il souffre déjà de ce qu'il craint. (He who fears suffering already suffers from what he fears.)" Michel de Montaigne — Essais, Book III, Ch. 12 (1588)
Why it stuck
The "terrible misfortunes" line is 20th-century English self-help, attributed to both Montaigne and Mark Twain without evidence in either. Montaigne's actual thought on this topic is more compact and contains no autobiographical confession.
The "misfortunes that never happened" formulation appears in Charles Leslie's 1862 book Musings. It predates neither Twain's adulthood nor Montaigne's death by enough to matter.
Know another line by heart?
Play the duel and see how many you can spot. Or browse the whole shelf.