Harish Trivedi,
© 2011
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (February 28, 1533 – September 13, 1592) was one of the most influential writers of the French Renaissance, known for popularising the essay as a literary genre and is popularly thought of as the father of Modern Skepticism. He became famous for his effortless ability to merge serious intellectual speculation with casual anecdotes[1] and autobiography—and his massive volume Essais (translated literally as "Attempts") contains, to this day, some of the most widely influential essays ever written… - Wikipedia).
Montaigne has credited Aristotle with the maxim, “A man . . . should touch his wife prudently and soberly, lest if he caresses her too lasciviously the pleasure should transport her outside the bounds of reason.” The real source of this unromantic advice is unknown.
and more -
Like Socrates, Montaigne claims that what he knows best is the fact that he does not know anything much.
One of Montaigne’s most valuable insights is that self-knowledge is connected with the knowledge of others, and that empathy is the heart of morality.
Montaigne complained that “there are more books on books than on any other subject: all we do is gloss each other.”
“Be born,” “Do a good job, but not too good a job,” and “Question everything.” But the one that resonates most strongly with his biographer Ms. Sarah Bakewell is “Read a lot, forget most of what you read and be slow-witted.” Somewhat unconsciously or sub-consciously I live by the last dicta of Montaigne.
The above is just a tip of the iceburg (lettuce), for a whole salad bar read Montaigne's Essays. Still in print after some four-hundred years. His book of essays was banned for nearly two-hundred years by the Vatican.
He is considered to be master of digression and often his essays are too revealatory. Montaigne informed his readers about his small penis (no wonder that the Vatican found his writings objectionable) what kind of wines he liked, women he liked... so on and so forth.
As a matter of fact, Montaigne is credited with 'inventing' the art of essay.
Montaigne retired from public life in 1570 and a little over a quarter century later British British philosopher and statesman Francis Bacon published his own collection of small pieces in 1597.
Montaigne essays melds the intellectual and the personal, and his musings have inspired countless writers, including William Hazlitt, Friedrich Nietzsche and Virginia Woolf.
This idea — writing about oneself to create a mirror in which other people recognize their own humanity — has not existed forever,” Ms. Bakewell writes. “It had to be invented. And, unlike many cultural inventions, it can be traced to a single person.”
Ms. Sarah Bakewell is the winner of the National Critic Circle Award this year (announced only two days back) for her biography of Montaigne titled "How to Live" with the sub-title “Or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer” published by the Other Press.
Written by Harish Trivedi and based on Anthony Gottleib's essay, Montaigne Moment, NYT, Sunday, March 13, 2011 and Patricia Cohen's review of Sarah Bakewell's biography of Montaigne ' How to Live' (NYT Dec. 17, 2010)
Few more Montaigne bon mots –
Selected by Harish Trivedi
A good marriage would be between a blind wife and a deaf husband.
A straight oar looks bent in the water. What matters is not merely that we see things but how we see them.
A wise man sees as much as he ought, not as much as he can.
Age imprints more wrinkles in the mind than it does on the face.
Ambition is not a vice of little people.
An unattempted lady could not vaunt of her chastity.
An untempted woman cannot boast of her chastity.
Confidence in others' honesty is no light testimony of one's own integrity
Confidence in the goodness of another is good proof of one's own goodness.
Death, they say, acquits us of all obligations.
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