The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers

by Eric Weiner

Own Your Past

Make Friends

‘I don’t live for you, but I live thanks to you, through you.’

Stop Caring What Others Think

The problem with the elderly is not that they act too young but that they don’t act young enough.

“None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm,”

“travel is one of the few things that can bring novelty back into our lives.”

two days in a new country are worth thirty in familiar surroundings.

Pursue Projects

This is one of the advantages of old age: you have more to give and less to lose.

Be a Poet of Habit

Do Nothing

By throwing himself into his task, despite its futility, because of its futility. “His fate belongs to him,” says Camus. “His rock is his thing.…

Question everything, especially your questions. Gaze at the world with wonder. Speak to it with reverence. Listen to it with love. Never stop learning. Do everything, but make time for nothing, too. Cross bridges on any damn level you want. Don’t curse your Sisyphean rock. Own it. Love it.

Death makes philosophers of us all.

“All the wisdom and reasoning in the world boils down finally to this point: to teach us not to be afraid to die.”

Montaigne’s own: Que sais-je: “What do I know?”

From the French assay, it means “try.” An assay is a trial, an attempt. His essays are one giant attempt.

The remedy for death is not more life—any more than the remedy for despair is hope. Both states call for the same medicine: acceptance.

An awareness of death enables us to live more fully.

“Persuade yourself that each new day that dawns will be your last,” says the poet Horace, “then you will receive each unexpected hour with gratitude.”

conversation “sweeter than any other action in life.”