Daily Inspiration Quote by Michel de Montaigne

Virtue, in Montaigne's hands, is allergic to smoothness. The line is a rebuke to the seductive idea that goodness should feel natural, efficient, even pleasant. "Facility" here means more than convenience; it implies ease as a moral alibi, the comforting fiction that the right choice will present itself with minimal friction. Montaigne snaps that fantasy in half. If virtue has a companion, it isn't comfort but resistance.

The phrasing matters: "rejects" gives virtue agency, a stern discretion. This isn't a sentimental morality where virtue rewards you with inner peace on schedule. It's almost suspicious of how quickly we congratulate ourselves. By insisting on a "craggy, rough and thorny way", Montaigne smuggles in an uncomfortable psychological truth: the path that flatters us is often the path that lets us avoid scrutiny. Difficulty becomes a diagnostic tool. If your ethics never cost you anything - time, status, appetite, ego - you might be practicing manners, not virtue.

Context sharpens the point. Writing in an era bruised by the French Wars of Religion, Montaigne watched moral certainty turn into public brutality. His skepticism wasn't moral laziness; it was a defense against fanaticism and self-deception. The "thorny way" reads like a warning against clean narratives of righteousness. Virtue, for him, is less a banner than a daily discipline: imperfect, bodily, negotiated under pressure. The roughness isn't romantic; it's the price of staying honest when excuses come easy.