Thus, reader, myself am the matter of my book: there’s no reason thou shouldst employ thy leisure about so frivolous and vain a subject.
- Source
- Essays, “To the Reader”, 1580, trans. Charles Cotton
- Written
- 1580
About this quotation
Montaigne wrote this note to the reader at the start of the Essays, dated 1 March 1580. He says the book has no aim but domestic and private, and that he wrote it for his relatives and friends.