“I do not portray being; I portray passing.”Michel de Montaigne · Eseuri · 1580 · III, 2
There is no fixed essence to describe, only a passage to document: being different today than yesterday isn't hypocrisy, it's normal.
His essays are a log of thinking in motion, not a definitive portrait. Montaigne believed no stable self exists to be described: opinions, moods, and bodies keep shifting, so any categorical claim about oneself soon turns false. That is why he revises, contradicts himself freely, and accepts rival versions of the same trait. When he notes being stingy in one situation and generous in another, he does not apologize; he records the variation as the very subject of the book.
Montaigne takes honesty one step further: contradicting yourself is not a flaw but a method. If you have changed, defending the old opinion would be the lie. Think of a friend you once told they made a good decision, and whom you now, seeing how it ended, judge differently. You can say both things without seeming insincere, because both were true in their moment. Montaigne writes exactly like that: he leaves successive versions side by side, without reconciling them. His book does not resolve contradictions, it displays them. But if identity is motion, how can you still make any serious decision about yourself?
Why it matters Useful for anyone feeling pressure to have a fixed identity, from résumés to social media: it licenses you to differ from your past self without feeling like a hypocrite.