The Complete Essays
Montaigne invented the essay as a literary form — the word "essai" means "attempt," and he used it to think on paper about everything from cannibals to kidney stones.
“If I am asked 'Why did you love him?' I feel that it can only be expressed by answering: 'Because it was him, because it was me.'”
Why It Matters
Montaigne invented the essay as a literary form — the word "essai" means "attempt," and he used it to think on paper about everything from cannibals to kidney stones. His radical honesty about his own contradictions, habits, and fears created a new way of writing about being human. Every essayist since — from Bacon to Orwell to Joan Didion — is working in a form Montaigne created.
The 
Take
Personal reviewSome gold in there for sure and his knowledge of ancient authors is unmatched and the constant quoting of the likes of Virgil and Cicero is unmatched.The self awareness thing seems groundbreaking and such, but it is overdone, and it gets old after a while .
Notable Quotes
“Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.”
“I quote others only in order the better to express myself.”