"Sits he on ever so high a throne, a man still sits on his bottom  This quotation gives an insight into to the often irreverent and farcical approach French Renaissance writer, Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), had regarding how we view ourselves. Montaigne, being a nobleman, lawyer, friend of the King of France, and twice mayor of Bordeaux would seem an unlikely candidate for giving practical advice on everyday matters; however, after having read many books on philosophy and encountering people who feared most for things surrounding self-esteem he noticed a distinct lack of talk about some of the lesser aspects of the human experience, he felt addressing the lesser aspects would alleviate much of the tension people had regarding self-esteem. Consequently, he made it his sole purpose in life to bring up every little facet of life in his writing, even going so far as to provide anecdotes about his eating habits, time spent in the washroom, and the size of his phallus. What Montaigne's famous essays amounted to was a very necessary boost in self-esteem for his readers during the Renaissance and even for his readers now so they may more freely pursue happiness. His work challenged our all too serious outlook on ourselves, providing an important contribution to a newfound age of thought in history, an age of reason. He addressed three key ways that people feel inadequate: discomfort with their bodies, unease at being judged, and feeling intellectually inferior.   To start off, Montaigne addressed the very first thing someone could have issue with, and that is being ashamed of one's own body. Montaigne met several people who allowed a sense of inadequacy surrounding their body get out of hand, among them was a man who killed himself after letting out a cacophony of farts at a banquet, a woman who was so embarrassed by chewing on food in public she hid behind curtains to eat and a man who requested that he be buried in his underwea