300 Quotes of Renaissance Philosophy

The Renaissance was a time of tremendous intellectual activity, with breakthroughs in science, arts and philosophy. Discover its immense creativity through three of its greatest thinkers, the French philosopher Michel de Montaigne, the English scientist Sir Francis Bacon, and the Italian political thinker Niccolò Machiavelli. Montaigne is known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre; his style merges casual anecdotes and autobiography with deep intellectual insights. His "Essays" are among the most influential ever written, and inspired countless great authors. Sir Francis Bacon was the first to argue for a skeptical and methodical approach in science, based on careful observation of events in nature, and founded on induction. This made him the father of scientific method, a groundbreaking turn of events at the time, and his work is still the basis of the scientific framework today. Machiavelli is the author of "The Prince", one of the most controversial political treatises eve