The Essays of Montaigne/Book I

by Michel de Montaigne

Book I

• The Author to the Reader
• Chapter I. That men by various ways arrive at the same end.
• Chapter II. Of Sorrow.
• Chapter III. That our affections carry themselves beyond us.
• Chapter IV. That the soul discharges her passions upon false objects, where the true are wanting.
• Chapter V. Whether the governor of a place besieged ought himself to go out to parley.
• Chapter VI. That the hour of parley is dangerous.
• Chapter VII. That the intention is judge of our actions.
• Chapter VIII. Of idleness.
• Chapter IX. Of liars.
• Chapter X. Of quick or slow speech.
• Chapter XI. Of prognostications.
• Chapter XII. Of constancy.
• Chapter XIII. The ceremony of the interview of princes.
• Chapter XIV. That men are justly punished for being obstinate in the defence of a fort that is not in reason to be defended.
• Chapter XV. Of the punishment of cowardice.
• Chapter XVI. A proceeding of some ambassadors.
• Chapter XVII. Of fear.
• Chapter XVIII. That men are not to judge of our happiness till after death.
• Chapter XIX. That to study philosophy is to learn to die.
• Chapter XX. Of the force of imagination.
• Chapter XXI. That the profit of one man is the damage of another.
• Chapter XXII. Of custom, and that we should not easily change a law received.
• Chapter XXIII. Various events from the same counsel.
• Chapter XXIV. Of pedantry.
• Chapter XXV. Of the education of children.
• Chapter XXVI. That it is folly to measure truth and error by our own capacity.
• Chapter XXVII. Of friendship.
• Chapter XXVIII. Nine-and-twenty sonnets of Estienne de la Boetie.
• Chapter XXIX. Of moderation.
• Chapter XXX. Of cannibals.
• Chapter XXXI. That a man is soberly to judge of the divine ordinances.
• Chapter XXXII. That we are to avoid pleasures, even at the expense of life.
• Chapter XXXIII. That fortune is oftentimes observed to act by the rule of reason.
• Chapter XXXIV. Of one defect in our government.
• Chapter XXXV. Of the custom of wearing clothes.
• Chapter XXXVI. Of Cato the Younger.
• Chapter XXXVII. That we laugh and cry for the same thing.
• Chapter XXXVIII. Of solitude.
• Chapter XXXIX. A consideration upon Cicero.
• Chapter XL. That the relish of good and evil depends in a great measure upon the opinion we have of them.
• Chapter XLI. Not to communicate a man's honour.
• Chapter XLII. Of the inequality amongst us.
• Chapter XLIII. Of sumptuary laws.
• Chapter XLIV. Of sleep.
• Chapter XLV. Of the battle of Dreux.
• Chapter XLVI. Of names.
• Chapter XLVII. Of the uncertainty of our judgment.
• Chapter XLVIII. Of war-horses, or destriers.
• Chapter XLIX. Of ancient customs.
• Chapter L. Of Democritus and Heraclitus.
• Chapter LI. Of the vanity of words.
• Chapter LII. Of the parsimony of the Ancients.
• Chapter LIII. Of a saying of Caesar.
• Chapter LIV. Of vain subtleties.
• Chapter LV. Of smells.
• Chapter LVI. Of prayers.
• Chapter LVII. Of age.