It is fear that I am most afraid of. In harshness it surpasses all other mischances.

[C’est ce dequoy j’ay le plus de peur, que la peur. Aussi surmonte elle en aigreur tous autres accidents.]

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist

Essays, Book 1, ch. 17 (1.17), “Of Fear [De la Peur]” (1572) [tr. Screech (1987), 1.18]
    (Source)

This essay was in the 1st (1580) edition, and was expanded in subsequent editions. This particular passage was added for the final, 1595, edition.

Some editions and translations, following the 1588 sequence, refer to this as being in ch. 18.

See also Roosevelt (1933).

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

It is feare I stand most in feare of. For, in sharpnesse it surmounteth all other accidents.
[tr. Florio (1603)]

The thing in the World I am most afraid of is Fear, and with good reason, that Passion alone, in the trouble of it, exceeding all other Accidents.
[tr. Cotton (1686)]

The thing I am most afraid of is fear, because it is a passion which supersedes and suspends all others.
[tr. Friswell (1868)]

The thing in the world I am most afraid of is fear, that passion alone, in the trouble of it, exceeding all other accidents.
[tr. Cotton/Hazlitt (1877)]

The thing I am most afraid of is fear. And, indeed, it surpasses in sharpness all other calamities.
[tr. Ives (1925), 1.18]

The thing I fear most is fear.
Moreover, it exceeds all other disorders in intensity.
[tr. Frame (1943), 1.18]

Fear is what I fear most.
No other experience is more bitter.
[tr. HyperEssays (2025)]