Still writing that essay about Montaigne. A portion from my rough draft:
If I may say so, Montaigne’s single dominant theme is our propensity for perpetual self-contradiction, and for a guy who can’t make up his mind about anything more complicated than a toggle switch on a bench grinder, I guess you could say Montaigne’s are my kind of affirmations. I admit the angle of my appreciation lacks academic rigor. But you read Montaigne, you feel like you have a friend. And that you may be a reliable idiot, but you are not the original reliable idiot.
Then again:
He also started speaking Latin at the age of four, went to college at the age of six, enrolled in law school when he was fourteen, served as a soldier and was appointed to several high-level government positions and hung out (just once, but still…) with the Pope.