Notes: Essays of Michel de Montaigne

Chapter 1

• Introductory analogies: pushing the point that routine and custom deafens the senses; the unusual becomes commonplace
• pg 8: "'Custom,' replied Plato, 'is no little thing.'"
• pg 8: Cozen: to cheat, deceive, or trick
• pg 10:  "...he asked me, what privilege this filthy excrement had, that we must carry about us a fine handkerchief to receive it..."
• still "nauseous and offensive", but it's a good point
• pg 11-13: Are the "customs" being written of real, or made up to prove a point?
• Montaigne is opposed to novelty, but also warns of customs' danger
• Are the allusions to Greek mythology common for philosophers of the time, or a particular interest of Montaigne?

Chapter 2

• pg 21: Jurisprudence: the science or philosophy of law; a body or system of laws
• pg 22: "...so, methinks, a sentence pressed within the harmony of verse, darts out more briskly upon the understanding, and strikes my ear and apprehension with a smarter and more pleasing effect."
• somewhat ironic, given the semi-poetic nature of the line
• pg 23: "...after a long and tedious travel, I came at last to meet with a piece that was lofty, rich, and elevated to the very clouds..."
• well placed sentence--the sudden imagery after pedantic musings is refreshing and emphasizes the point by example
• pg 24: "For these are my own particular opinions and fancies, and I deliver them as only what I myself believe, and not for what is to be believed by others."
• the core idea of an essay?
• pg 24: "Cubs of bears and puppies readily discover their natural inclination...force the propension of nature."
• part of humanity's uniqueness, for better or worse
• pg 25: "'Tis the custom of pedagogues to be eternally thundering in their pupil's ears...hear his pupil speak in turn."
• valid advice even in the modern school
• pg 34: "...sometimes his governor shall put the author himself, which he shall think most proper for him, into his hands, and sometimes only the marrow and substance of it."
• pg 36: "...children are to be placed out and disposed of, not according to the wealth, qualities, or condition of the father, but according to the faculties and the capacity of their own souls."
• basically, stand by your own merit
• pg 38: "'Tis not a soul, 'tis not a body that we are training up, but a man, and we ought not to divide him."
• Montaigne persistently emphasizes the need to address education in a practical matter (rather than solely academic)
• pg 46: "(wherein [children] are much more profoundly involved than we)"
• is there any basis for this assertion?

Chapter 3

• fortune characterized as female; what is the origin of this choice?
• pg 50: "Does [fortune] not seem to be an artist here?"
• What is the historical background to the (somewhat bizarre) examples of fortune's artistry?

Chapter 4

• pg 53: "I am afraid our eyes are bigger than our bellies, and that we have more curiosity than capacity; for we grasp at all, but catch nothing but wind."
• interesting analogy
• pg 54: Febrific: producing or marked by fever
• pg 55: "This man I had was a plain ignorant fellow...forging an untruth."
• I'm not sure I agree with this.  Intelligence or ignorance are separate from integrity
• pg 55: "As, indeed, we have no other level of truth and reason, than the example and idea of the opinions and customs of the place wherein we live."
• Again, back to the power of customs and social norm
• pg 59: "We may then call these people barbarous, in respect to the rules of reason: but not in respect to ourselves, who in all sorts of barbarity exceed them."
• pg 60: "Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of the courage and the soul."
• Somewhat thematically similar to Montaigne's instruction on education (there must be a combination of mind and body)

Chapter 5

• pg 69: "These new-discovered people of the Indies when the Spaniards first landed among the...language of truce and friendship."
• testament to the power of the unusual (or what is not the custom)
• pg 71: "I do not think that for graceful riding any nation in the world excels the French."
• there is an obvious bias here, but Montaigne does assert that his writings reflect his personal beliefs (pg 24)
• This particular essay seems out of place next to broader subjects such as education
• lost relevancy in time? 
• or is he alluding to some greater significance (something like, "you can judge a man by a horse")

Chapter 6

• pg 74: "A man makes a judgement of a horse...stand in the stable."
• pg75: "I am clearly for the first humor...nor so miserable as we are vile and mean."
• harsh and cynical judgement of humanity, but I see the reasoning behind many of its points

Chapter 7

• pg 77: "Let us no longer flatter ourselves...'tis the last and extremest sort of dying."
• slightly less relevant now, but still an insightful commentary on our perceptions of "natural".
• pg 78: "For my part, I believe our souls are adult...withing that term or never."
• I disagree at this point; I sure hope my "soul" does not stop developing within the next half decade
• pg 79: "...and I have seen enough who have got a weakness in their brains...so much greater is the danger."
• this is why mental disease is infinitely more frightening than physical

Chapter 8

• pg 81: "Every one lays weight upon the sin of his companion, but lightens his own."
• pg82: "The worst state of man is that wherein he loses the knowledge and government of himself."
• it's safe to say that this is true, even outside the context of drunkenness

Chapter 9

• pg 89: "There is the name and the thing; the name is a voice which denotes and signifies the thing; the name is no part of the thing, nor of the substance; 'tis a foreign piece joined to the thing, and outside it."
• somewhat similar to The Treachery of Images?
• pg 92: "...glory also, like a shadow, goes sometimes before the body, and sometimes in length infinitely exceeds it."
• poetic and insightful observation
• pg 97: "...there are very few actions and very few persons...extinguished in their own presence?"
• the curiously contradictory nature of glory and fame

Chapter 10

• pg 99: "...ceremony forbids us to express by words things that are lawful and natural, and we obey it; reason forbids us to do things unlawful and ill, and nobody obeys it."
• I understand the sentiment, but the absolutism seems to oversimplify the situation
• pg 100: "This glory consists of two parts; the one in setting too great a value upon ourselves, and the other in setting too little value upon others
• key point of the chapter
• pg 105: "There is, indeed, above us toward the mountains a sort of Gascon spoken...French is graceful, neat, and luxuriant."

• interesting that 16th Century French were self aware of what is still commonly thought of the language
• pg 105: "Now I am of something lower than the middle stature, a defect that not only borders upon deformity, but carries withal a great deal of inconvenience along with it."
• for some reason, I find Montaigne's frank self-assessment amusing
• pg 109: "I love misfortunes that are purely so, that do not torment and tease me with the uncertainty of their growing better; but at the first push plunge me directly into the worst that can be expected."
• what is the difference between "hope" and "tormenting with the uncertainty of their growing better"?
• pg 113: "They offered an excellent archer, condemned to die, to save his life...he cannot so exactly do by design."
• Scary, but also very true
• pg 117: "We easily enough confess in others an advantage of courage...in an extreme and incomparable distance."
• directly tying back to the chapter theme of presumption

Chapter 11

• pg 124: "Nature discovers this confusion to us...at last bring tears."
• I've always been fascinated by this
• pg 124: Perspicacity: Keenness of mental perception and understanding; discernment; penetration

Chapter 12

• pg 127: "Physicians say, that the thumbs are the master fingers of the hand."
• Is there some obscure meaning to this chapter that I'm missing?  Or is it really just about thumbs?

Chapter 13

• pg 132: "What a wonderful thing it is that the drop of seed from which we are produced...the nephew like his uncle?"
• interesting non-genetic approach
• pg 134: "'Tis possible I may have derived this natural antipathy...established in me the opinion I am of."
• Montaigne acknowledges that his own actions have more impact than any perceived "hereditary" traits--I agree with that standpoint
• pg 134: "...pleasures are to be avoided, if greater pains be the consequence, and pains to be coveted, that will terminate in greater pleasures."
• good advice for procrastination
• Montaigne jumps from topic to topic rather frequently
• the chapter's theme was "of the resemblance of children to their fathers" but he spends more time talking about medicine and physicians
• pg 143: "Let them, then, no longer exclaim against those who in this trouble of sickness suffer themselves to be gently guided by their own appetite and the advice of nature, and commit themselves to the common fortune."
• how applicable is Montaigne's stance with modern medicine?
• pg 145: "They swear till then they never perceived the evening air...lives are cut shorter by the half."
• pg 148: "And, moreover, had this experiment been perfect...should lord it over all mankind, is against reason."
• this is much more relevant than his other (rather outdated) statements of medicine; also ironically shows healthy scientific skepticism
• pg 149: "Good God!  Madame, how should I hate the reputation of being a pretty fellow at writing, and an ass and an inanity in everything else!"
• uncharacteristically angry, at least relative to his academic writing style
• pg 150: "I find it much more rare to see our humors...the most universal quality is diversity."
• this seems to be a running theme in his essays

Chapter 14

• pg 153: "There is likewise no virtue which does not...supply itself with this complacency and satisfaction."
• I have no particularly strong opinions on this passage, but I like the way it was written
• pg 153: "We, who live private lives...but stick to your own."
• basically self discipline over external pressure
• repentance is more about action than will, according to Montaigne
• pg 160: "Were I to live my life over again, I should live it just as I have lived it; I neither complain of the past, nor do I fear the future."
• this is a wonderful way to live life
• pg 161: "Man moves all together, both toward his perfection and decay."
• depressing in its accuracy

Chapter 15

• pg 165: "I, who have no other thing in my aim...I am not contented with it."
• it's odd that tranquility would require so much effort; I like the sentiment though
• pg 166: "I hate a froward and dismal spirit...craggy and rough places."
• powerful imagery
• pg 168: "Socrates being told that people spoke ill of him, 'not at all,' he said, 'there is nothing in me of what they say.'"
• good approach to handling "people speaking ill
• unless, if course, the criticism is valid
• pg 176: "In another, the young men publicly cut...afterwards made a fire as an offering to their gods."
• ...ouch.  I cringed.
• pg 179: "Do not consider how little it is that is given, but how few have it to give."
• pg 189: "I might have it better elsewhere, but then the work would have been less my own; and its principal end and perfection is to be exactly mine."
• Montaigne confirms the personal nature of his Essays
• pg 189: "...I correct the faults of inadvertence, not those of custom...all the world knows me in my book, and my book in me."
• mistakes should be personally defined, not by "custom"
• pg 191: "Every one avoids seeing a man born...the one is injury, the other favor."
• interesting commentary on taboo
• pg 193: "The Egyptian wisely answered who asked him..."that though mayest not know what it is."
• seems simple and obvious, but does make a common question sound rather inane
• pg 201: "I almost equally hate a stupid and slothful laziness, as I do a toilsome and painful employment."
• I agree with this (especially as assignment due dates approach!)
• pg 204: Virile: of masculine energy, forcefulness, or strength
• pg 205: "I say that males and females are cast in the same mold, and that, education and usage excepted, the difference is not great."

Chapter 16

• pg 207: "Will you ask me, whence comes the custom of blessing those who sneeze...they say 'tis Aristotle's."
• I found this funny, despite Montaigne's assertion it comes from Aristotle; it is an interesting observation nonetheless
• pg 208: "...he who has once been a very fool, will never after be very wise."
• I completely disagree; I think every wise person was a fool at one point--you have to make the mistakes to learn from them (wisdom comes from experience, it's not inherent)
• pg 216: "I am afraid our knowledge is weak...both in extent of time and extent of matter."
• pg 218: Pusillanimous: lacking courage or resolution; cowardly; faint-hearted; timid
• wonderfully insulting term

Chapter 17

• pg 221: "Let the philosophers say what they will, the main thing at which we all aim, even in virtue itself, is pleasure."
• hedonism?
• pg 223: "Young and old die upon the same terms."
• pg 225: "Where death waits for us is uncertain...delivers us from all subjection and constraint."
• oddly both depressing and optimistic
• pg 226: "I am at all hours as well prepared as I am ever like to be, and death, whenever he shall come, can bring nothing along with him I did not expect long before."
• that sounds like a morbid way to live
• pg 228: "...he who would teach men to die, would at the same time teach them to live."
• the driving idea of the essay
• pg 230: "Long life, and short, are by death made all one; for there is no long, nor short, to things that are no more."
• basically, the pursuit of long life is superficial
• people should instead seek fulfilling live
• pg 232: "The utility of living consists not in length of days, but in the use of time; a man may have lived long, and yet lived but a little."
• pg 233: "Every day travels toward death: the last only arrives at it."
• one sentence summary of the chapter

Chapter 18

• pg 237: "Among human conditions this is common enough: to be better pleased with foreign things than with our own, and to love innovation and change."
• why is this?
• pg 245: "The surgeon's end is not only to cut away the dead flesh; that is but the progress of his cure...restore the member to its due state."
• effective analogy
• pg 249: "It were a fine thing to be old, if we only traveled toward improvement; but 'tis a drunken, stumbling, reeling, infirm motion."
• Does it necessarily have to such a motion? Surely one can continue to improve, in other areas of life if needed
• pg 251: "I had much rather break the wall of a prison, and the laws themselves than my own word."
• that's commendable; a good life philosophy in regards to the law's grey areas
• pg 254: "'That he has given his enemies as much occasion to love him as his friends.'"
• pg 256: "Nature has placed us in the world free and unbound: we imprison ourselves in certain straits..."
• interesting observation regarding human defined borders, especially when they are detrimental to us
• pg 259: "'But, at your age, you will never return from so long a journey.'...I only walk for the walk's sake."
• possibly my favorite lines of the Essays--simple, belligerent, but inspiring
• Montaigne's wish to die alone (pg 260) is unusual, but he presents valid reasoning
• however, in the absence of "counterfeits" I think I would still prefer friends and family at death
• pg 263: "What I have not settled of my affairs when I was in health, let no one expect i should do it when I am sick."
• goes hand in hand with his earlier statement that he has already prepared for death
• pg 263: "Who can expect that [the book's] present form should be in use fifty years hence?"
• Oh, the irony.
• pg 271: "...liberty and laziness, the qualities most predominant in me..."
• again, Montaigne displays characteristically blunt honesty
• pg 273: "'Tis the indiligent reader who loses my subject...wander at the same rate."
• I suppose that makes me somewhat of an indiligent reader--I lost track of Montaigne's theme a few times; but then again, he seems to have anticipated this potential problem
• pg 274: "I pay more service to the dead; they can no longer help themselves, and therefore, methinks, the more require my assistance."
• It is interesting that Montaigne dwells so much on the death of others, but approaches his own death brusquely

Chapter 19

• pg 280: "We are all of us richer than we think we are; but we are taught to borrow and beg, and brought up  more to make use of what is another's than of our own."
• I think this statement is a bit too broad; it certainly doesn't apply to "all of us"
• pg 284: Parracidal: relating to the killing of one's parents
• pg 286: "And good historians skip over...most acceptable to the readers."
• interesting definition of what a historian should be; concerned more with story than accuracy
• pg 290: "...what good will it do thee to anticipate thy ill fortune, to lose the present for fear of the future; and to make thyself miserable now, because thou art to be so in time?"
• recurring theme in Montaigne's writing; "cross the bridge when you get there"
• pg 295: "Socrates was a perfect exemplar in all great qualities...Nature did him wrong."
• pushing Montaigne's observation that he defends the dead; sees other (dead) philosophers as close friends
• pg 299: "'I was, indeed,' said he, 'merciful to the man, but not to his wickedness.'"
• I agree with this stand; you can disagree with a person's actions while still believing in their humanity

Chapter 20

• pg 307: "A women fancying she had swallowed a pin in a piece of bread...presently found herself eased of her pain."
• the story seems far-fetched (as, perhaps, is intended) but illustrates Montaigne's point well
• imagination, although itself intangible, has concrete effects on the world
• pg 309: "And this it is that makes me sometimes doubt in my own mind...whose intentions they would become absolute caution."
• compare to Montaigne's writing of historians on page 286

Chapter 21

• pg 311: "There is no desire more natural than that of knowledge.  We try all ways that can lead us to it; where reason is wanting, we therein employ experience."
• I have never viewed experience as a substitute for reason, but it actually makes a lot of sense
• pg 312: "...that lawyers and physicians are the pests of a country."
• humorous that lawyers still (in popular culture) fit this description; physicians not so much
• pg 313: "Never did two men make the same judgement...but in the same man, at diverse hours."
• opinions perhaps do not change as quickly as on the hour, but I agree with the general sentiment; my opinions now are vastly different than two years ago
• pg 320: "I pronounce my opinion by disjointed articles, as a thing that cannot be spoken at once and in gross..."
• the mindset behind the seemingly rambling style that Montaigne uses, as well as the bleeding of chapter's themes into each other (e.g. death, friendship, the future)
• pg 325: "The best of my bodily conditions is that I am flexible...as that which is carried on by rule and discipline."
• I appreciate flexibility (or the absence of obstinacy, open-mindedness) but not to the extent of "crossing my own rules"
• pg 328: "I never received harm by any action that was very pleasant to me..."
• compare to pg 221; I think that things that are pleasant (at the time) can potentially cause more harm then things that are obviously unpleasant
• pg 333: "I am obliged to fortune...I make one of paper."
• interesting reflection of natural memory and artificial; the immune system in conjunction with man-made memory and medicine
• pg 337: "If others excel you in knowledge, in gracefulness, in strength, or fortune, you have third causes to blame for that; but to not give place to them in stability of mind, you can blame no one for that but yourself."
• it would seem to be the opposite of what I think, but it is likely that I misunderstand
• It is interesting that in a book so dedicated to Montaigne as an individual, his own habits and preferences in everyday situations are not expanded on much until this chapter
• pg 346: "The great and glorious masterpiece of man is to know how to live to purpose...in all security.
• powerful imagery in this passage, helped by phrases such as "glorious masterpiece," and "heaven and earth were conspired"
• pg 352: "The fairest lives, in my opinion, are those which regularly accommodate themselves to the common and human model."
• this was the point that Montaigne was building up to with all his self-description of daily activities