How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer

by Sarah Bakewell

The mind flows on and on, in a ceaseless “stream of consciousness”—a phrase coined

If you fail to grasp life, it will elude you. If you do grasp it, it will elude you anyway.

No pleasure has any savor for me without communication. Not even a merry thought comes to my mind without my being vexed at having produced it alone without anyone to offer it to.

living well in every sense: thriving, relishing life, being a good person.

“If I had to live over again,” he wrote cheerfully, “I would live as I have lived.”

Not everyone can have the benefit of being insane, but anyone can make life easier for themselves by turning down the beam of their reason slightly.

“Nothing costs me dear except care and trouble,” wrote Montaigne. “I seek only to grow indifferent and relaxed.”

I avoid subjecting myself to any sort of obligation. I try to have no express need of anyone … It is very pitiful and hazardous to be dependent on another. I have conceived a mortal hatred of being obliged either to another or by another than myself.

Once upon a time, there was no snake, there was no scorpion, There was no hyena, there was no lion, There was no wild dog, no wolf, There was no fear, no terror, Man had no rival.

I set forth a humble and inglorious life; that does not matter. You can tie up all moral philosophy with a common and private life just as well as with a life of richer stuff.