The Essays of Montaigne - Foundational Thinkers Lecture (Patreon)

‘The usefulness of living lies not in duration but in what you make of it. Some have lived long and 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.’

Today we are discussing one of the most influential, uplifting, and profound works of all time: The Essays of Michel de Montaigne.

We're discussing how to live, near-death experiences, overcoming depression, how to know yourself and others, momento mori, carpe diem, powerful mindsets, controlling our emotions, how to give with losing yourself, mindfulness, how to love your life, and much more.

This discussion is the second in our quarterly series of special standalone deep dives into the foundational thinkers of the Western tradition. Like with our Machiavelli discussion, this lecture is designed for readers who are coming to Montaigne fresh. So you do not need to have read anything prior to listening.

You may however wish to have your copy of the Essays on hand during the talk, making a note of the titles mentioned, and even pausing to read any that sound useful to you at this moment in your life. Or you may wish to listen to the lecture all the way through first, and then start conversing with Montaigne using one of the recommended approaches discussed.

Timestamps:

0:00 Montaigne’s near-death experience

2:00 the great writer’s return to life

4:00 Montaigne’s career in the parlement

6:00 religious civil war in 16th century France

8:00 the writer grows weary of the troubles

10:00 Montaigne retires from public life

12:00 how to spend time in solitude

13:00 when retirement turns into a nightmare

14:00 humours theory & suffering melancholy

15:00 why did Montaigne write his essays?

16:00 what does the word ‘essay’ mean?

18:00 Montaigne on substance over style

20:00 the writer’s attitude to social niceties

21:00 what are Montaigne’s essays about?

22:00 the universal is in the individual

23:00 Montaigne’s warning to the reader

25:00 ‘I myself am the subject of my book’

26:00 what should you know yourself?

28:00 the power of owning your flaws

29:00 how to trust yourself/be self-reliant

31:00 knowing oneself means knowing others

32:00 Montaigne on the art of conversation

33:00 accidental philosophy & psychology

35:00 celebrating our unique differences

37:00 how Montaigne’s essays developed

38:00 essays as profound commonplace book

40:00 read Montaigne to learn how to live

41:00 why Montaigne’s essays are so textured

42:00 what does A/B/C mean in the essays?

43:00 how do you read the essays of Montaigne?

44:00 slow-reading vs inhaling the essays

45:00 issuing you a rewarding reading challenge

46:00 why you should read in a linear fashion

47:00 unity effect when appreciating great works

48:00 reading Montaigne is conversing with a friend

49:00 learning how to accept death in order to live

50:00 all the world’s a stage & we are merely players

52:00 is dying of old age really that natural?

54:00 what is the best way to prepare for death?

55:00 ancient thought, stoicism & eudaemonia

56:00 link between momento mori & carpe diem

57:00 what have you been putting off for tomorrow?

58:00 what would you regret on your deathbed?

59:00 how to improve your relationships with others

1:00:00 how to let go of the burdens you’re carrying

1:01:00 nature will take care of death for us

1:03:00 death is just a footnote in the book of life

1:05:00 how to accept your contradictions

1:07:00 Montaigne’s love of Ovid’s Metamorphoses

1:09:00 how we weep and laugh at the same things

1:11:00 do we see life as a comedy or a tragedy?

1:12:00 how belief endows itself with true reality

1:13:00 external vs internal locus of control

1:14:00 Montaigne on controlling your temper

1:16:00 when Montaigne became the Mayor

1:18:00 how to give without losing yourself

1:20:00 Montaigne on how to remain present

1:22:00 how to make your life your masterpiece

1:23:00 ‘I want Death to find me planting my cabbages’

1:25:00 Montaigne on how to love your life

1:27:00 even on the highest throne, we sit on our…

1:30:00 ‘some have lived long and lived little’

1:35:00 my current ten personal favourite essays

1:37:00 action steps for reading Montaigne’s essays

Recommendations for You:

Edition: If you would like the same edition as myself, the M. A. Screech translation available in Penguin paperback is excellent, wonderfully accessible, and my personal favourite. The Donald Frame translation is also tremendous and available in beautiful Everyman hardback. For those interested in the translation that Shakespeare read, you might find it interesting to check out the John Florio translation. As always, for those reading in translation, it can be valuable to enjoy a taste-test, comparing the same passage across translations, to discover which one works best for you.

Explore: In the discussion, we walked through three recommended approaches to the essays. I also set the challenge to follow a sustained and steady linear reading of all of the essays, treating your reading like a conversation with a friend, with the aim of curating your personal ten favourites. Montaigne himself puts it best when he says, ‘This great world of ours is the looking-glass in which we must gaze to come to know ourselves from the right slant.’ Because we find ourselves in the essays, every reader will have a unique selection of favourites that will change over time. I've put my current favourites below, but bear in mind that this is not designed to be definitive and much of the impact of reading Montaigne comes from the unity effect of reading all of him.

Essays: Some great places to start dipping into the essays include 'On experience,' 'On physiognomy,' 'An Apology for Raymond Sebond,' 'To philosophise is to learn how to die,' 'On restraining your will,' 'On practice,' 'On books,' 'On solitude,' 'On anger,' 'On the art of conversation,' 'On some lines of Virgil,' 'On educating children,' 'On the cannibals,' 'On presumption,' 'On Democritus and Heraclitus,' 'How we weep and laugh at the same thing,' 'On Cato the Younger.' We mention many more throughout the talk, which also make great jumping-off points, so go for the topics that pull you in right now.

Challenge: Read Montaigne's essays steadily, savour his wisdom, and bring him into the conversation with the rest of our reading. His essays will open up the imaginative literature we're immersed in. Cross-pollinate your writers. Get them talking to each other. In the same way that we have applied Machiavelli to Shakespeare, let's allow Montaigne to inform our continued reading adventures. Can we find insights in his essays that will give us profound new angles for our journey through Genji?

Biography: Sarah Bakewell's biography of Montaigne explores the great essayist's life by attempting to provide twenty answers to the question of how to live. This is one of the most marvellous studies of a writer's life that I have read, and Bakewell's passion for Montaigne steams off the page.

Commonplace Book: As you read Montaigne's essays, you may feel the urge to start penning your own. You could take your cue from the great writer and begin by keeping a commonplace book. Collect your favourite quotations from your reading in a dedicated journal. You may like to use these quotations as prompts to put your thoughts on the topic down. I have spoken about my journalling practice here. I also believe that Morning Pages, a life-changing practice which Julia Cameron outlines her in fantastic The Artist's Way, is a great way to get used to consistently writing. My favoured line of journals is the Leuchtturrm1917 dotted bullet journals, and the pen is the Muji ballpoint.

Reflection: Memento mori and carpe diem are linked. Remembering our mortality can help us to live. Montaigne offers us a great opportunity to reflect and grow. What have you been putting off for tomorrow? What have you been holding onto that you can let go? What would you regret at the end of your life? And what do you need to do to avoid that now? We can likely all think of at least half a dozen small things (habits, behaviours, decisions, beliefs) that we could change or implement that would lead to significant improvements in our lives.

Questions to Consider:

1) What topics would you be most passionate to write your own essays about?

2) How can you live life to the full starting today?

3) Does Montaigne's outlook on life resonate with you?

4) Have you read any of his essays before? If so, what did you make of them? If this is your first meeting, which ones are you curious to explore?

Please do share anything that resonates with you from our discussion and return here from your reading to let us know the essays, passages, and ideas that you find the most thought-provoking.

Happy reading, everybody!