Éléments de géométrie algébrique (EGA) (full text available from numdam) continues to be an inspirational text for me. I wish I'd started reading it earlier.
It's come up in a few other places here on MO. To quote Jonathan Wise's answer to another question,
Virtually every page I've read of EGA/SGA has been useful to me, and almost every page I've skimmed I've later wished I'd read in more detail. The reputation for difficulty is, I think, unfounded. They are certainly abstract, but virtually every detail is present; in many ways, that makes EGA/SGA easier to read than other sources. Opening a volume and reading a sub-paragraph from the middle can be difficult because of all the back-references, but reading linearly can be very pleasant and rewarding. The French language may be a barrier for some, but one doesn't have to "learn French" to learn enough to understand EGA.
