How to live well? That is the most important question facing all of us: how can I make the most of the life that I have been given? It is the great philosophers who have made the best attempts to answer this conundrum. Amongst the greatest of these philosophers is the French thinker Montaigne (1533 – 1592), who invented the essay. Montaigne just wrote down whatever happened to be in his head. In some respects, he was the original blogger. But unlike most bloggers, what he wrote down was interesting.
Sarah Bakewell has given us a lovely book about him entitled “How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer”. Elegantly, humourously and simply written, it confidently blends biography with philosophy. It is my non-fiction book of the year.
Below are a dozen of the tips from Montaigne on how to live well. Listed on their own, these tips might be considered somewhat trite, but in his essays each one is examined in detail and the subtle implications are teased out:
1. Do not worry about death.
2. Do something no one has done before.
3. Live temperately. All things in moderation.
4. Question everything. “All I know is that I know nothing, and I’m not even sure about that”.
5. Wake from the sleep of habit.
6. Pay attention.
7. Read a lot, forget most of what you read, and be slow-witted.
8. Use little tricks.
9. See the world.
10. Do a good job, but not too good a job.
11. Be ordinary and imperfect.
12. Let life be its own answer.
When reading the life-advice provided in wisdom literature one is frequently tempted to say: “But that is obvious! Everyone knows that!”
Well, if it is all really so obvious, and if everyone really knows it, then why do so many of us fail to live up to it?
No comments:
Post a Comment