Montaigne's Essais
The 1580 collection that invented the essay and made quotation a method of thought.
Michel de Montaigne published the first two books of his Essais in 1580, adding a third and expanding the earlier ones until his death in 1592. The title means "attempts" — trials of judgement rather than finished treatises.
The Essais are saturated with quotation. Montaigne borrows constantly from Seneca, Plutarch, Lucretius and others, not as ornament but as material to think against, testing each borrowed sentence against his own experience.
This makes the book a landmark in quotation practice: it models the commonplace book turned into argument, where the collected sentence becomes a starting point rather than a conclusion.
Common mistake: attributing his quoted classical lines to Montaigne. Many familiar "Montaigne quotes" are Seneca or Publilius Syrus, quoted by him and later credited to him by anthologists.
“Que sais-je? — What do I know?”
Keep reading the glossary
A personal notebook of quotations, ideas, and passages — a tradition stretching from antiquity to today.
A 'bouquet' of extracts — a curated anthology of passages from other authors, gathered by theme.
An Italian commonplace book — a personal miscellany of quotations, notes, and reflections gathered without formal order.
A brief illuminating glimpse — an insight offered as a flash rather than an argument.