Short answers, pulled from the story.
Michel de Montaigne is best known for popularising the essay as a literary genre through his collection the Essais, first published in 1580. He is also renowned for his sceptical motto "What do I know?" ("Que sais-je?") and for his influence on writers including Francis Bacon, William Shakespeare, and Blaise Pascal.
Michel de Montaigne was born on the 28th of February 1533 at the Chateau de Montaigne in the Guyenne region of France, near Bordeaux, in a town now called Saint-Michel-de-Montaigne.
Montaigne adopted Pyrrhonism, a philosophy of radical scepticism that holds that humans are unable to attain true certainty. His longest essay, the Apology for Raymond Sebond, marks his formal embrace of this position and contains his famous motto "What do I know?"
Etienne de La Boetie was a humanist poet and jurist who served in the Parliament of Bordeaux. Montaigne met him at age twenty-five and considered their friendship exceptional, describing it as something that occurs "once every three centuries." La Boetie died in 1563 at thirty-two, and scholars have argued that grief over this loss was the primary motivation for Montaigne beginning the Essais.
Montaigne argued against rote memorisation and the uncritical acceptance of authority, insisting that students must make knowledge their own through experience, dialogue, and travel. His essays "On the Education of Children" and "On Experience" set out a method in which tutors follow the student's pace and encourage curiosity rather than obedience. These ideas continue to influence modern educational practice.
Scholars have argued since Edward Capell raised the idea in 1780 that Shakespeare was influenced by Montaigne. The connection runs through John Florio's English translation of the Essais, published in 1603. A scene in Shakespeare's The Tempest follows Florio's translation of Montaigne's essay "Of Cannibals" so closely that one scholar described the indebtedness as "unmistakable."