Michel de Montaigne

With the goal of describing man with complete frankness and using himself as his most frequent example, Michel de Montaigne first published his "Essays" in 1580. This collection of 107 chapters encompasses a wide variety of subjects, originally inspired by his study of Latin classics, and later by the lives of the leading figures of his time. Michel de Montaigne saw the most basic elements of man as variety and unpredictability, and this idea permeates...

En esta selección se trata de dar con algunas de las principales "tesis" del autor en el ámbito de la ética y las costumbres, además del testimonio sobre sí mismo, que es lo más llamativo de los Ensayos. No se recogen sus amenas historias extraídas sobre todo de los clásicos y de la historia de Francia, pues hubieran alargado esta antología.

One of France's great Renaissance thinkers, Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) invented the essay as a literary form. This compilation features the best of his brief, highly readable reflections on poetry, philosophy, theology, law, literature, education, and world exploration. Remarkably modern in their views, the essays continue to resonate with readers as their author bemoans his failing memory, criticizes his culture's obsession with celebrity, and...

Montaigne podría ser uno de los escritores más simpáticos que se hayan conocido. Es conocido por popularizar el ensayo como género literario; su estilo combina anécdotas casuales y autobiográficas con profundos conocimientos intelectuales. Sus ensayos se encuentran entre los más influyentes jamás escritos; se puede reconocer la influencia directa de Montaigne en las grandes figuras literarias de todo el mundo, desde René Descartes a Nietzsche,...

We all die, sooner or later. We all know it, and we wonder when, where, and how it may happen. and yet we go to extraordinary lengths to put the thought of it out of our minds. We hesitate to bring it up in conversations. Montaigne, who ... essay, addressed this issue head on in "To Study Philosophy is to Learn to Die." It is perhaps his best-known essay, a kind of summation of his philosophy, and considered his most stoic. There are three main themes:...

The Essays of Michel de Montaigne (1877) is a collection of essays and letters by Michel de Montaigne. Originally published in French as Essais (1580), this edition was translated by English poet Charles Cotton in the late-17th century and republished by William Carew Hazlitt, the grandson of renowned English essayist and critic William Hazlitt. "No man living is more free from this passion [of sorrow] than I, who yet neither like it in myself nor...

In 1572, Montaigne — nobleman, humanist, and thoroughly Renaissance man — retired to the seclusion of his estate in the Dordogne and started to write. From his pen poured a stream of 'essays' — attempts to capture the observations that came to him on an idiosyncratic range of subjects, from ancient customs, cannibals and books to thumbs, war-horses and the wearing of clothes. He made the study of himself the starting point for investigations...

"Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) was a Dutch humanist, scholar, and social critic, and one of the most important figures of the Renaissance. The Praise of Folly is perhaps his best-known work. Originally written to amuse his friend Sir Thomas More, this satiric celebration of pleasure, youth, and intoxication irreverently pokes fun at the pieties of theologians and the foibles that make us all human, while ultimately reaffirming the value of Christian...