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Who really said it

Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens

Written by Michel de Montaigne 1533–1592 · French Renaissance philosopher & inventor of the essay
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From the “Apology for Raymond Sebond,” the longest essay in Montaigne’s Essais (Book II, Ch. 12), first published 1580. The French reads “Il ne sçauroit forger un ciron, et forge des Dieux à douzaines”; this familiar English wording is Charles Cotton’s translation.

Last verified 16 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens” Michel de Montaigne, "An Apology for Raymond Sebond," Essays, Book II, Ch. 12 (1580), trans. Charles Cotton

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Provenance

The source

Work
An Apology for Raymond Sebond (Apologie de Raimond Sebond), Essais, Book II, Ch. 12
First published
1580 (French); the essay appears from the first edition of the Essais
Translation
Charles Cotton, 1685–86 (rev. W. C. Hazlitt, 1877) — the rendering used in Bartlett’s
Original French
“Il ne sçauroit forger un ciron, et forge des Dieux à douzaines”

Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens.

Montaigne’s French “ciron” is a mite — the tiniest creature then visible to the eye. Cotton loosely rendered it “worm”; later translators (e.g. Donald Frame) keep “mite”: “he could not make a mite, and he makes gods by the dozen.” The thought — man cannot fashion the smallest living thing yet manufactures deities wholesale — is Montaigne’s in every version.

Wikiquote: Montaigne (Sourced), Apology for Raimond Sebond

How we verified this

  • Listed in Wikiquote’s Sourced section, cited to Book II, Ch. 12 (“Apology for Raimond Sebond”) via Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
  • The French original — “L’homme est bien insensé. Il ne sçauroit forger un ciron, et forge des Dieux à douzaines” — is confirmed in the ATHENA text from Essais II.12.
  • The familiar English wording is Charles Cotton’s 17th-century translation, the version reproduced across quotation catalogues such as LibQuotes.
Public domain

Both the French original (1580) and Charles Cotton’s English translation (1685–86, revised by W. C. Hazlitt in 1877) were published well before 1931 and are in the public domain in the United States.

This reflects the original work, which is public domain. If your exact English wording comes from a specific modern translation, that translation may itself still be under copyright — check the edition you quote.

Fact-check

The wording, honestly

The attribution here is right — this really is Montaigne. The only thing worth flagging is that the memorable English is a translator’s work, not Montaigne’s own words.

Charles Cotton, not Montaigne verbatim wording

The crisp English — “stark mad… make a worm… gods by dozens” — is Charles Cotton’s 17th-century rendering. Montaigne wrote “Il ne sçauroit forger un ciron, et forge des Dieux à douzaines.”

“worm” vs. “mite” detail

Montaigne’s “ciron” is a mite — the smallest visible creature — not a worm; modern translations such as Donald Frame’s keep “mite.”

Genuinely Montaigne, from Essais II.12; the exact English you see is Charles Cotton’s translation.

Context

Why it mattered

In the “Apology for Raymond Sebond,” Montaigne mounts a sweeping case against human arrogance — the conviction that our reason grasps the cosmos. The jab about worms and gods is his method in miniature: set man’s vast metaphysical ambition beside his inability to fashion the humblest living thing, and the presumption collapses into comedy.

The thought echoed forward: Pascal, who read Montaigne closely, folds this very contrast between human littleness and human pretension into the Pensées.

He cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens.

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Wikiquote: Michel de Montaigneen.wikiquote.org

Lists the line in its Sourced section, cited to Essais II.12 via Bartlett’s.
Essais II.12, Apology for Raymond Sebonden.wikisource.org

The full text of the chapter the line comes from.
ATHENA — Montaigne citationsathena.unige.ch

Confirms the French original “forger un ciron… forge des Dieux à douzaines.”
Essais, Édition de Bordeaux (French)fr.wikisource.org

Facsimile of the French text of the Apologie de Raimond Sebond.
Essays of Montaigne (Cotton trans., Gutenberg)gutenberg.org

Project Gutenberg edition of the public-domain Cotton translation.
LibQuotes entrylibquotes.com

Quotation catalogue giving the exact Cotton wording and Book II, Ch. 12 source.

About the author

Who was Montaigne?

Michel de Montaigne

1533–1592 · French Renaissance philosopher & inventor of the essay

Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) was a French nobleman, magistrate, and writer who all but invented the personal essay with his Essais (1580–1595). Skeptical, digressive, and relentlessly self-examining, he made his own doubt the instrument of inquiry — the “Apology for Raymond Sebond” is his longest and most corrosive attack on human presumption, of which this line is a signature barb.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Michel de Montaigne, “An Apology for Raymond Sebond,” in Essays, Book II, Ch. 12 (1580), trans. Charles Cotton, rev. W. C. Hazlitt (1877).

MLA (9th ed.)

Montaigne, Michel de. “An Apology for Raymond Sebond.” Essays, translated by Charles Cotton, revised by W. C. Hazlitt, 1877.

APA (7th ed.)

Montaigne, M. de. (1877). Essays (C. Cotton, Trans.; W. C. Hazlitt, Rev.). (Original work published 1580)

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