The Complete Essays
In 1572 Montaigne retired from public life and began the reading and writing which were to develop into "assays" of his thoughts and opinions. Nobody in Western civilization had ever tried to do what Montaigne set out to do. In a vivid, contemporary style he surprises us with entertaining quotations; he moves swiftly from thought to thought, often digressing from an idea only to return to it triumphantly, having caught up with it elsewhere, and in so doing leads the reader along the...
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In 1572 Montaigne retired from public life and began the reading and writing which were to develop into "assays" of his thoughts and opinions. Nobody in Western civilization had ever tried to do what Montaigne set out to do. In a vivid, contemporary style he surprises us with entertaining quotations; he moves swiftly from thought to thought, often digressing from an idea only to return to it triumphantly, having caught up with it elsewhere, and in so doing leads the reader along the criss-cross paths of a journey of discovery. Montaigne set out to discover himself. What he discovered instead was the human race.
The Complete Essays Introduction Note on the Text The Annotations Note on the Translation Explanation of the Symbols Appendices To the Reader\ Book I\ 1. We reach the same end by discrepant means\ 2. On sadness\ 3. Our emotions get carried away beyond us\ 4. How the soul discharges its emotions against false objects when lacking real ones\ 5. Whether the governor of a besieged fortress should go out and parley\ 6. The hour of parleying is dangerous\ 7. That our deeds are judged by the intention\ 8. On idleness\ 9. On liars\ 10. On a ready or hesitant delivery\ 11. On prognostications\ 12. On constancy\ 13. Ceremonial at the meeting of kings\ 14. That the taste of good and evil things depends in large part on the opinion we have of them\ 15. One is punished for stubbornly defending a fort without good reason\ 16. On punishing cowardice\ 17. The doings of certain ambassadors\ 18. On fear\ 19. That we should not be deemed happy till after our death\ 20. To philosophize is to learn how to die\ 21. On the power of the imagination\ 22. One man's profit is another man's loss\ 23. On habit: and on never easily changing a traditional law\ 24. Same design: differing outcomes\ 25. On schoolmasters' learning\ 26. On educating children\ 27. That it is madness to judge the true and the false from our own capacities\ 28. On affectionate relationships\ 29. Nine and twenty sonnets of Estienne de La Boëtie\ 30. On moderation\ 31. On the Cannibals\ 32. Judgements on God's ordinances must be embarked upon with prudence\ 33. On fleeing from pleasures at the cost of one's life\ 34. Fortune is often found in Reason's train\ 35. Something lacking in our civil administrations\ 36. On the custom of wearing clothing\ 37. On Cato the Younger\ 38. How we weep and laugh at the same thing\ 39. On solitude\ 40. Reflections upon Cicero\ 41. On not sharing one's fame\ 42. On the inequality there is between us\ 43. On sumptuary laws\ 44. On sleep\ 45. On the Battle of Dreux\ 46. On names\ 47. On the uncertainty of our judgement\ 48. On war-horses\ 49. On ancient customs\ 50. On Democritus and Heraclitus\ 51. On the vanity of words\ 52. On the frugality of the Ancients\ 53. On one of Caesar's sayings\ 54. On vain cunning devices\ 55. On smells\ 56. On prayer\ 57. On the length of life\ Book II\ 1. On the inconstancy of our actions\ 2. On drunkenness\ 3. A custom of the Isle of Cea\ 4. "Work can wait till tomorrow"\ 5. On conscience\ 6. On practice\ 7. On rewards for honour\ 8. On the affection of fathers for their children\ 9. On the armour of the Parthians\ 10. On books\ 11. On cruelty\ 12. An apology for Raymond Sebond\ 13. On judging someone else's death\ 14. How our mind tangles itself up\ 15. That difficulty increases desire\ 16. On glory\ 17. On presumption\ 18. On giving the lie\ 19. On freedom of conscience\ 20. We can savour nothing pure\ 21. Against indolence\ 22. On riding "in post"\ 23. On bad means to a good end\ 24. On the greatness of Rome\ 25. On not pretending to be ill\ 26. On thumbs\ 27. On cowardice, the mother of cruelty\ 28. There is a season for everything\ 29. On virtue\ 30. On a monster-child\ 31. On anger\ 32. In defence of Seneca and Plutarch\ 33. The tale of Spurina\ 34. Observations on Julius Caesar's methods of waging war\ 35. On three good wives\ 36. On the most excellent of men\ 37. On the resemblance of children to their fathers\ Book III\ 1. On the useful and the honourable\ 2. On repenting\ 3. On three kinds of social intercourse\ 4. On diversion\ 5. On some lines of Virgil\ 6. On coaches\ 7. On high rank as a disadvantage\ 8. On the art of conversation\ 9. On vanity\ 10. On restraining your will\ 11. On the lame\ 12. On physiognomy\ 13. On experience\ Index
