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Books, A to Z On 6 of the 12 ideas

Essays

Michel de Montaigne 1580 to 1588

4 Cites2 Echoes

Ideas we have traced through this book

08

Keep your death in mind

Cites Horace

Montaigne quotes Horace for treating each day as your last, “Think each day when past is thy last”, and adds his own gain: “The premeditation of death is the premeditation of liberty”.

  1. by the 2nd c. BCE
    “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”

    Psalm 90. Earliest we can find, more than 1,600 years earlier.

  2. 1580
    “The premeditation of death is the premeditation of liberty; he who has learned to die has unlearned to serve.”

Full text read.

Michel de Montaigne, Essays, ‘That to study philosophy is to learn to die’ (1.19), tr. Charles Cotton (ed. W. C. Hazlitt) (1877).

Project Gutenberg eBook #3600, gutenberg.org/ebooks/3600.

03

It’s your view of things that upsets you

Cites an ancient Greek sentence

Montaigne says men “are tormented with the opinions they have of things and not by the things themselves” and credits “an ancient Greek sentence”; the editor’s note names the Manual of Epictetus.

  1. 45 BCE
    “The whole cause, then, is in opinion; and this observation applies not to this grief alone, but to every other disorder of the mind”

    Cicero, Tusculan Disputations. Earliest we can find, 1,624 years earlier.

  2. 1580
    “Men (says an ancient Greek sentence)--[Manual of Epictetus, c. 10.]-- are tormented with the opinions they have of things and not by the things themselves.”

Full text read.

Michel de Montaigne, Essays, ‘That the relish for good and evil depends in great measure upon the opinion we have of them’ (1.40), tr. Charles Cotton (ed. W. C. Hazlitt) (1877).

Project Gutenberg eBook #3600, gutenberg.org/ebooks/3600.

10

Live one day at a time

Cites Seneca

Montaigne says fear, desire and hope keep pushing people towards the future, and attaches a line credited to Seneca, Epist. 98: “The mind anxious about the future is unhappy.”

  1. 23 BCE
    “A wise deity shrouds in obscure darkness the events of the time to come, and smiles if a mortal is solicitous beyond the law of nature. Be mindful to manage duly that which is present.”

    Horace, Odes. Earliest we can find, about 1,600 years earlier.

  2. 1580
    “We are never present with, but always beyond ourselves: fear, desire, hope, still push us on towards the future”

Full text read.

Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Book I ch. 3 ‘That our affections carry themselves beyond us’, tr. Charles Cotton (ed. W. C. Hazlitt) (1877).

Project Gutenberg eBook #3600, gutenberg.org/ebooks/3600.

09

Life is long enough if you use it

Echoes

Montaigne writes that the use of living lies “not in the length of days, but in the use of time”, and credits no one for it; Lucretius is quoted for other points about death.

  1. c. 49 CE
    “We do not have a very short time assigned to us, but we lose a great deal of it: life is long enough to carry out the most important projects”

    Seneca, On the Shortness of Life. Earliest we can find, about 1,530 years earlier.

  2. 1580
    “The utility of living consists not in the length of days, but in the use of time; a man may have lived long, and yet lived but a little.”

Full text read.

Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Book I ch. 19 ‘That to study philosophy is to learn to die’, tr. Charles Cotton (ed. W. C. Hazlitt) (1877).

Project Gutenberg eBook #3600, gutenberg.org/ebooks/3600.

12

We suffer more in fear than in fact

Echoes

Montaigne writes that “He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears”, the idea in his own words. He credits no one for it; his mentions of Seneca concern other points.

  1. c. 64 CE
    “There are more things, Lucilius, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”

    Seneca, Moral Letters. Earliest we can find, about 1,520 years earlier.

  2. 1588
    “He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.”

Full text read.

Michel de Montaigne, Essays, ‘Of Experience’ (3.13), tr. Charles Cotton (ed. W. C. Hazlitt) (1877).

Project Gutenberg eBook #3600, gutenberg.org/ebooks/3600.

01

Some things are up to you

Cites Epictetus

Montaigne names Epictetus for the claim that only our opinion is properly our own, and uses it to mock human presumption rather than as advice.

  1. c. 125 CE
    “There are things which are within our power, and there are things which are beyond our power. Within our power are opinion, aim, desire, aversion, and, in one word, whatever affairs are our own. Beyond our power are body, property, reputation, office, and, in one word, whatever are not properly our own affairs.”

    Epictetus, Enchiridion. Earliest we can find, about 1,460 years earlier.

  2. 1580
    “‘Tis as Epictetus says, that man has nothing properly his own, but the use of his opinion; we have nothing but wind and smoke for our portion.”

Full text read.

Michel de Montaigne, Essays, ‘Apology for Raimond Sebond’ (2.12), tr. Charles Cotton (ed. W. C. Hazlitt) (1877).

Project Gutenberg eBook #3600, gutenberg.org/ebooks/3600.

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