The Essays by Michel de Montaigne (1580)
TL;DR It is a series of Essays with a self-examination or a self-exploratory aim, discussing various topics that piqued Montaigne's curiosity.
Had Montaigne lived today he would be writing long form blogs. It is influenced by the stoics; some of more well known philosophers such as Socrates, St. Augustine and others. In the philosophical branch, he is lumped under Skepticism. From the writings, he seems like a regular guy, regular in the sense that he's like a neighbor, like an old uncle, a really smart, and at times self-deprecating uncle.
And so a reminder to not take yourself too seriously:
To learn that we have said or done a stupid thing is nothing: we must learn a more ample and important lesson: that we are but blockheads.
And that we're all equal. (and yes this was written on a philosophy book)
Kings and Philosophers shit: and so do ladies
Dude likes to keep it simple
I like the kind of speech which is simple and natural, the same on paper as on the lip; the speech which is rich in matter, sinewy, brief and short; not so much titivated and refined as forceful and brusque.
The most satisfying essay oddly enough, is the one where he muses about death; like one long memento mori. The essay is titled: To philosophize is to learn how to die.
(this is a man that's content)
It is enough for me to spend my time contentedly, I deal myself the best hand I can and then accept it. It can be as inglorious or as unexemplary as you please.
(I'm pretty sure the stoics would be proud)
Let us deprive death of its strangeness, let us frequent it, let us get used to it
We do not know where death awaits us: so let us wait for it everywhere. To practise death is to practice freedom. A man who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave. Knowing how to die gives us freedom from subjection and constraint.
I am now ready to leave, thank God, whenever he pleases, regretting nothing except life itself - if its loss should happen to weigh heavy on me. I am untying all the knots. I have already half-said my adieu to everyone but myself. No man has ever prepared to leave the world more simply nor more fully than I have. No one has more completely let go of everything than I try to do.
(This might be where Tyler Durden says, you have to know not fear)
When our bodies are bent and stooping low they have less strength for supporting burdens. so too for our souls: we must therefore educate and train them for their encounter with that adversary, death; for the soul can find no rest while she remains afraid of him.
(A realization that death is a part of you)
Death is one of the attributes you were created with; death is a part of you; you are running away from yourself; this being which you enjoy is equally divided between death and life. From the day you were born your path leads to death as well as life;
The usefulness of living lies not in duration but in what you make of it. some have lived long and some have lived little. See to it while you are still here. whether you have lived enough depends not on a count of years but on your will.
Dying and Living are two sides of the same coin, but are they really?
It is my conviction that what makes for human happiness is not, As Antisthenes said, dying happily but living happily.
(i only like this analogy because it relates to music)
Our life is composed like the harmony of the world, of discords as well as of different tones, sweet and harsh, sharp and flat, soft and loud.
(Okay so maybe they're of the same coin, the fact that we lose life at some point, makes it more precious)
That is why I so order my ways that I can lose my life without regret, not however because it is troublesome or importunate but because one of its attributes is that it must be lost.
The middle of living can still be riddled with Pain and Suffering, so make peace with that fact.
Despite all medicine, we are made for growing old, growing weaker and falling ill. That is the first lesson which the Mexicans teach to their children when, on leaving their mother's womb, they greet them thus: 'Child, thou hast come into this world to suffer: suffer, endure and hold thy peace'
Nature has lent us suffering in order that it may honour and serve the purposes of pleasure and of mere absence of pain.
Following Epicurus I believe pleasures are to be avoided if they result in greater pain, and pain is to be welcomed if it results in greater pleasure.
These next ones are about Virtue.
A man's worth and reputation lie in the mind and in the will: his true honour is found there. Bravery does not consist in firm arms and legs but in firm minds and souls: it is not a matter of what our horse or our weapons are worth but of what we are. the man who is struck down but remains steadfast.
Make him understand that confessing an error which he discovers in his own argument even when he alone has noticed it is an act of justice and integrity, which are the main qualities he pursues
Zeal itself does partake of the divine Reason and Justice when it behaves ordinately and moderately but that it changes into hatred and envy whenever it serves human passions.
The beginning of all virtue is reflection and deliberation: its end and perfection, constancy.
Anyone who has not groomed his life in general towards some definite end cannot possibly arrange his individual actions properly. It is impossible to put the pieces together if you do not have in your head the idea of the whole.
When the soul is without a definite aim she gets lost; for as they say, if you everywhere you are nowhere
Every day, every hour, we say things about others which ought more properly to be addressed to ourselves if only we had learned to turn our thoughts inward as well as widely outward.
Virtue rejects ease as a companion. That gentle easy slope up which are guided the measured steps of a good natural disposition is not the path of real virtue. Virtue demands a rough and thorny road: she wants either external difficulties to struggle against (which was the way of Metellus) by means of which Fortune is pleased to break up the directness of her course for her, or else inward difficulties furnished by the disordered passions and imperfections of our condition.
There is an unutterable delight in acting well which makes us inwardly rejoice; a noble feeling of pride accompanies a good conscience. A soul courageous in its vice can perhaps furnish itself with composure but it can never provide such satisfaction and happiness with oneself.
Rare is the life which remains ordinate even in privacy. Anyone can take part in a farce and act the honest man on the trestles: but to be right-ruled within, in your bosom, where anything is licit, where everything is hidden - that's what matters
Ask Alexander what he can do and he will reply: 'Subdue the whole world'. Ask Socrates and he will answer, 'Live the life of man in conformity with this natural condition': knowledge which is more general, onerous, and right. The soul's value consists not in going high but in going ordinately. Its greatness is not displayed in great things but in the Mean.
One part about Marriage
A good marriage (if there be such a thing) rejects the company and conditions of Cupid: it strives to reproduce those of loving-friendship. It is a pleasant fellowship for life, full of constancy, trust and an infinity of solid useful services and mutual duties.
I know no marriages which fail and come to grief more quickly than those which are set on foot by beauty and amorous desire. Marriage requires foundations which are solid and durable; and we must keep on the alert. That boiling rapture is no good at all.
Tackling a couple other Emotions
(lust)
Just as there is no end to covetousness and ambition, so there is no end to lust. It still lives on after the satiety; you can prescribe to it no end, no lasting satisfaction: it always proceeds beyond possession.
(shame)
Yet it is to be feared that disgrace, by making men desperate, may make them not merely estranged but hostile
(fear)
Then fear banishes all wisdom from my heart; Cicero
(evil and cruelty)
Wickedness forges torments for itself.
(hate, irreverence, and the wrong way to ask for forgiveness)
Instead of amending our faults we redouble them by offering God (from whom we ought to be begging forgiveness) emotions full of irreverence and hatred. That is why I do not approve of those whom I see praying to God frequently and regularly if deeds consonant with prayers do not bear me witness of some reformation and amendment.
(tough love, constructive criticism)
You need good strong ears to hear yourself frankly judged; and since there are few who can undergo it without being hurt, those who risk undertaking it do us a singular act of love, for it is to love soundly to wound and vex a man in the interests of his improvement.
The guy is a big fan of solitude. Must have been an introvert. Oh yeah he retired to his own estate at 38 years old, to write.
If you do not first lighten yourself and your soul of the weight of your burdens, moving about will only increase their pressure on you, as a ship's cargo is less troublesome when lashed in place. You do more harm than good to a patient by moving him about: you shake his illness down into the sack, just as you drive stakes in by pulling and waggling them about. That is why it is not enough to withdraw from the mob, not enough to go to another place: we have to withdraw from such attributes of the mob as are within us. It is our own self we have to isolate and take back into possession
We should have wives, children, property and above all good health... if we can: but we should not become so attached to them that our happiness depends on them. We should set aside a room just for ourselves, at the back of the shop, keeping it entirely free and establishing there our true liberty, our principal solitude and asylum. Within it our normal conversation should be of ourselves, with ourselves, so privy that no commerce or communication with the outside world should find a place there; there we should talk and laugh as though we had no wife, no children, no possessions, no followers, no menservants, so that when the ocassions arises that we must lose them it should not be a new experience to do without them. We have a soul able to turn in on itself; she can keep herself company she has the wherewithal to attack, to defend, to receive and to give.
Ambition, covetousness, irresolution, fear and desires do not abandon us just because we have changed our landscape.
You should no longer be concerned with what the world says of you but with what you say to yourself. Withdraw into yourself, but first prepare yourself to welcome yourself there.
Men who misjudge what they are like may well feed on false approval; I cannot. I see myself and explore myself right into my inwards; i know what pertains to me. I am content with less praise that I am more known.
These parts are where it gets fuzzy, especially when you're talking about intangible things
(keep an open mind)
There is a dangerous boldness of great consequence in despising whatever we cannot understand
(there are things beyond knowing)
We must be content with the light which the Sun vouchsafes to shed on us by its rays; were a man to lift up his eyes to seek a greater light in the Sun itself, let him not find it strange if he is blinded as a penalty for his presumption.
I am of Saint Augustine's opinion, that in matters difficult to verify and perilous to believe, it is better to incline towards doubt than certainty.
(explaining)
We change one word for another, often for one less known.
(we don't know that we don't know)
The difficulties and obscurities of any branch of learning can be perceived only by those who have been able to go into it; for it always need some degree of intelligence to become aware that we do not know. If we are to learn that a door is shut against us we must first give it a shove.
(not knowing is alright, that's the start)
Anyone who wishes to be cured of ignorance must first admit to it: Iris is the daughter of Thaumantis: amazement is the foundation of all philosophy; inquiry its way of advancing; and ignorance is its end.
Other Books in Philosophy
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