One should always have one’s boots on, and be ready to leave.

[Il faut estre tousjours botté et prest à partir, en tant que en nous est.]

Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) French essayist

Essays, Book 1, ch. 19 (1.19), “That to Philosophize Is to Learn to Die [Que Philosopher, c’est apprendre à mourir]” (1572-03) [tr. Rat (1958), 1.20]
    (Source)

On being prepared to die at any time.

This essay and passage were present in the 1st (1580) edition; the essay was expanded for subsequent editions.

Some translators use the older 1588 chapter sequence, and identify this as ch. 20.

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

A man should ever, as much as in him lieth, be ready booted to take his journey.
[tr. Florio (1603)]

We should always (as near as we can) be booted and spurr’d, and ready to go.
[tr. Cotton (1686)]

We should always, as far as possible, be booted and ready to depart.
[tr. Friswell (1868)]

We should always, as near as we can, be booted and spurred, and ready to go.
[tr. Cotton/Hazlitt (1877)]

We must always be booted and ready to depart, so far as lies in us.
[tr. Ives (1925), 1.20]

We must be always booted and ready to go, so far as it is in our power.
[tr. Frame (1943), 1.20]

As far as we possibly can we must always have our boots on, ready to go.
[tr. Screech (1987), 1.20]

We must always have our boots on, ready to leave, insofar as we can.
[tr. Atkinson/Sices (2012)]

We must always have our boots on and, as much as possible, be ready to go.
[tr. HyperEssays (2024)]