Historically famous critics
Michel de Montaigne
1533-1592 · French · Renaissance
French essayist and skeptic who questioned dogma, custom, cruelty, and human certainty
Montaigne invented the personal essay and used it as a weapon against certainty itself, turning the question Que sais-je (what do I know) into a challenge to every dogma of his age. Writing amid the slaughter of the French Wars of Religion, he attacked fanaticism, torture, and the arrogance that let Europeans butcher peoples they called barbarians. His refusal to mistake custom for truth made skeptical, humane self-examination a permanent tool of criticism.
Essays to read on AltWoke
102 essays, full text, free. Grouped by the collection they appeared in.
The Essays, Book I (55)
- That Men by Various Ways Arrive at the Same End
- Of Sorrow
- That Our Affections Carry Themselves Beyond Us
- That the Soul Expends Its Passions upon False Objects, Where the True Are Wanting
- Whether the Governor of a Place Besieged Ought Himself to Go Out to Parley
- That the Hour of Parley Dangerous
- That the Intention Is Judge of Our Actions
- Of Idleness
- Of Liars
- Of Quick or Slow Speech
- Of Prognostications
- Of Constancy
- The Ceremony of the Interview of Princes
- That Men Are Justly Punished for Being Obstinate in the Defence of a Fort That Is Not in Reason to Be Defended
- Of the Punishment of Cowardice
- A Proceeding of Some Ambassadors
- Of Fear
- That Men Are Not to Judge of Our Happiness Till After Death
- That to Study Philosopy Is to Learn to Die
- Of the Force of Imagination
- That the Profit of One Man Is the Damage of Another
- Of Custom, and That We Should Not Easily Change a Law Received
- Various Events from the Same Counsel
- Of Pedantry
- Of the Education of Children
- That It Is Folly to Measure Truth and Error by Our Own Capacity
- Of Friendship
- Of Cannibals
- That a Man Is Soberly to Judge of the Divine Ordinances
- That We Are to Avoid Pleasures, Even at the Expense of Life
- That Fortune Is Oftentimes Observed to Act by the Rule of Reason
- Of One Defect in Our Government
- Of the Custom of Wearing Clothes
- Of Cato the Younger
- That We Laugh and Cry for the Same Thing
- Of Solitude
- A Consideration upon Cicero
- That the Relish for Good and Evil Depends in Great Measure upon the Opinion We Have of Them
- Not to Communicate a Man’s Honour
- Of the Inequality Amoungst Us
- Of Sumptuary Laws
- Of Sleep
- Of the Battle of Dreux
- Of Names
- Of the Uncertainty of Our Judgment
- Of War Horses, or Destriers
- Of Ancient Customs
- Of Democritus and Heraclitus
- Of the Vanity of Words
- Of the Parsimony of the Ancients
- Of a Saying of Caesar
- Of Vain Subtleties
- Of Smells
- Of Prayers
- Of Age
The Essays, Book II (35)
- Of the Inconstancy of Our Actions
- Of Drunkenness
- A Custom of the Isle of Cea
- To-Morrow’s a New Day
- Of Conscience
- Use Makes Perfect
- Of Recompenses of Honour
- Of the Affection of Fathers to Their Children
- Of the Arms of the Parthians
- Of Books
- Of Cruelty
- Of Judging of the Death of Another
- That Our Mind Hinders Itself
- That Our Desires Are Augmented by Difficulty
- Of Glory
- Of Presumption
- Of Giving the Lie
- Of Liberty of Conscience
- That We Taste Nothing Pure
- Against Idleness
- Of Posting
- Of Ill Means Employed to a Good End
- Of the Roman Grandeur
- Not to Counterfeit Being Sick
- Of Thumbs
- Cowardice the Mother of Cruelty
- All Things Have Their Season
- Of Virtue
- Of Anger
- Defence of Seneca and Plutarch
- The Story of Spurina
- Observation on the Means to Carry on a War According to Julius Caesar
- Of Three Good Women
- Of the Most Excellent Men
- Of the Resemblance of Children to Their Fathers
Wrote against
- religious fanaticism
- dogmatism and certainty
- cruelty and torture
- custom and convention
- colonial conquest
- human presumption
- the Wars of Religion
Books
Complete bibliography. Public-domain titles link to the full text; others link out to read, borrow, or buy.
- The Essays (Complete)Books I-III; Charles Cotton translationProject Gutenberg · free, public domain1580
- The Journal of Montaigne's Travelswritten 1580-1581, published posthumouslyInternet Archive · free, public domain1774
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica: Michel de Montaigne
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Michel de Montaigne