On Solitude

by Michel de Montaigne

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.

[‘I have broken my chains,’ you say. But a struggling cur may snap its chain, only to escape with a great length of it fixed to its collar.]11

That is true solitude.

It can be enjoyed in towns and in kings’ courts, but more conveniently apart.

let us make our happiness depend on ourselves; let

us loose ourselves from the bonds which tie us to others; let us gain power over ourselves to live really and truly alone – and of doing so in contentment.

Certainly, if he still has himself, a man of understanding has lost nothing.

our normal conversation should be of ourselves, with ourselves, so privy

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

we must lose them it should not be a new experience to do without them. We have a soul able to turn in on herself; she can keep herself company; she ha...

[in lonely places, be a crowd unto yourself.]17

servants. Our own affairs have never caused us worry enough, so let us start cudgelling and tormenting our brains over those of our neighbours and of those whom we love.

Should a man prepare a settled place in his soul for something dearer than himself!]18

more reasonable and right for those who, following the example of Thales, have devoted to the world their more active, vigorous years. We have lived quite enough for others: let us live at least this tail-end of life for ourselves. Let us bring our thoughts and reflections back to ourselves and to our own well-being. Preparing securely for our own withdrawal is no light matter: it gives us enough trouble without

It is time to slip our knots with society now that we can contribute nothing to it. A man with nothing to lend should refrain from borrowing. Our powers are failing: let us draw them in and keep them

let him avoid becoming an encumbrance, importunate and useless to himself. Let him pamper himself, cherish himself, but above all control himself, so respecting his reason and so fearing his conscience that he cannot

When any good things happen to come to us from outside we should make use of them, so long as they remain pleasurable; we must not let them become our principal base, for they are no such thing: neither reason nor Nature will have them so. Why do we go against Nature’s laws and make our happiness a slave in the power of others? Yet

like pleasurable easy books which tickle my interest, or those which console me and counsel me how to control my life and death.

[Let us pluck life’s pleasures: it is up to us to live; you will soon be ashes, a ghost, something to tell tales about.]30

You have devoted your life to the light: devote what remains to obscurity. It is impossible to give up your pursuits if you do not give up their fruits. Renounce all concern for name and glory.

Withdraw into yourself, but first prepare yourself to welcome yourself there. It would be madness to entrust yourself to yourself, if you did not know how to govern yourself. There are ways of failing in solitude as in society. Make yourself into a man in whose sight you would not care to walk awry; feel shame for yourself and respect for yourself, – ‘observentur

‘The path they will keep you on is that of being contented with yourself, of borrowing all from