Quotes from Michel de Montaigne's books, and about them
The Essays on Metamorphoses: “The first taste which I had for books came to me from the pleasure in reading the fables of Ovid's Metamorphoses; for, being about seven or eight years old, I gave up all other diversions to read them…”
The Essays on The Aeneid: “But this was enough to make me neglect the other lessons that were prescribed me; … for by this means I ran through Virgil's AEneid, and then Terence, and then Plautus, and then some Italian comedies, allured by the sweetness of the subject…”
The Essays on Amadis of Gaul: “for as for the Lancelot of the Lake, the Amadis of Gaul, the Huon of Bordeaux, and such farragos, by which children are most delighted with, I had never so much as heard their names, no more than I yet know what they contain…”
The Essays on The Decameron: “Amongst books that are simply pleasant, of the moderns, Boccaccio's Decameron, Rabelais, and the Basia of Johannes Secundus (if those may be ranged under the title) are worth reading for amusement.”
The Essays on Orlando Furioso: “This conception of mine is nowhere more demonstrable than in comparing the AEneid with Orlando Furioso; of which we see the first, by dint of wing, flying in a brave and lofty place, and always following his point: the latter, fluttering and hopping from tale to tale…”
The Essays on The Georgics: “I have always thought that, in poesy, Virgil, Lucretius, Catullus, and Horace by many degrees excel the rest; and signally, Virgil in his Georgics, which I look upon as the most accomplished piece in poetry…”
The Essays on Plutarch's Lives: “What profit shall he not reap as to the business of men, by reading the Lives of Plutarch?”
The Essays on The Republic: “I refer to her Plato's cave in his Republic, and the physicians, who so often submit the reasons of their art to her authority…”
The Essays on Laws: “'Tis marvellous to see how solicitous Plato is in his Laws concerning the gaiety and diversion of the youth of his city, and how much and often he enlarges upon the races, sports, songs, leaps, and dances…”
The Essays on Natural Theology (Theologia Naturalis): “Peter Bunel, … presented him at his departure with a book, entitled _Theologia naturalis; sive Liber Creaturarum, magistri Raimondi de Sebonde._ And as the Italian and Spanish tongues were familiar to my father, … he hoped that, with a little help, he might be able to understand it…”