Michel de Montaigne: Essays, Book I, Chapter 20
“He who should teach men to die would at the same time teach them to live.”
Reflection
Montaigne's point is not morbid: remembering impermanence is how he teaches urgency and tenderness toward the living. What would you say today if you stopped assuming there is time?
Source record
- Author
- Michel de Montaigne
- Original source
- Essays, Book I, Chapter 20
- Original date
- 1580
- Edition used
- Trans. Charles Cotton, 1685 — public domain
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