Michel de Montaigne – 16th-century French thinker, author of Essays and On Friendship, founder of the essay form. He combined scepticism, irony, and self-reflection, exploring humanity through personal experience. His style shaped European philosophy and early modern literature.
📖 Essays (1580) was a lifelong work he kept expanding. 🏰 Wrote most of them in his tower, surrounded by his library. 🖋 His motto “Que sais-je?” (“What do I know?”) became a symbol of scepticism. 🌍 Influenced Descartes, Pascal, Shakespeare, and Nietzsche. 🍷 Came from a winemaking family, which secured his independence. 💔 Lived through plague and personal loss, hence his meditations on death. 📚 Believed true education comes from experience, not books alone. ✨ In France, his name is synonymous with wisdom and simplicity. 🏛 A statue of him stands by the Sorbonne – students rub his foot for luck. 😂 Fun fact: he joked that he wrote so candidly about himself because “it’s easier to make a fool of myself than of others.”