If I could have only one book, I’d choose Montaigne’s Essays.
He was a lawyer, and the word “essais” to him meant “attempts” or “trials.” He retired early, went to his library and tried to sort out what he thought about things.
I like to think that when he sat down to write an essay, “essay” just meant that he was taking a stab at the topic. It helps me to follow his example.
He wrote about every topic imaginable, but the most puzzling subject was himself. Here’s a sample:
I study myself more than any other subject. That is my metaphysics; that is my physics.
The more simply we entrust ourself to Nature the more wisely we do so … I would rather be an expert on me than on Cicero.
Were I a good pupil there is enough, I find, in my own experience to make me wise. … Even the life of Caesar is less exemplary for us than our own… Is a man not stupid if he remembers having been so often wrong in his judgment yet does not become deeply distrustful of it thereafter?
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne was born on this day in 1533. Feb. 28 is a red-letter date in my calendar of heroes.
If you want to know more, I have an essay on Montaigne at hebertaylor.com.
• Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays, translated by M.A. Screech; London: Penguin Books, 1993, pp. 1217-8.
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