1533–1592 · French Renaissance philosopher & inventor of the personal essay
Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) was a French Renaissance thinker who effectively invented the personal essay with his ‘Essais’ (1580–95), a sprawling, self-questioning inquiry into how little we truly know. Skepticism is his signature move — his motto was “Que sais-je?” (“What do I know?”) — which is exactly why this line about believing most firmly what we understand least is so characteristically his.