Translated by Charles Cotton, Edited by William Carew Hazlitt; 107 essays organized in three books. Published in 1580, enlarged in 1588 and still not completed to his satisfaction at the time of his death.
"Given the huge breadth of his readings, Montaigne could have been ranked among the most erudite humanists of the XVIth century. But in the Essays, his aim is above all to exercise his own judgment properly. Readers who might want to convict him of ignorance would find nothing to hold against him, he said, for he was exerting his natural capacities, not borrowed ones. He thought that too much knowledge could prove a burden, preferring to exert his ‘natural judgment’ to displaying his erudition." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
"Everyone calls barbarity what he is not accustomed to."
"Life in itself is neither good nor evil, it is the place of good and evil, according to what you make it."
"The continuous work of our life is to build death."
"If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because it was he, because it was I."
"Kings and philosophers defecate, and so do ladies."
