How to Live summary

The year was 1569 or ’70 – the exact date is unknown. Montaigne was about 36 – already middle age, relative to the average lifespan of his era. 

He was out on one of his horse rides, accompanied by his servants and lost in his thoughts like usual. A few miles away from his chateau, they were winding their way down a forest path, when all of a sudden – wham! He felt a tremendous weight slam into him from behind. He went flying through the air, hit the ground, and lost consciousness. 

Thanks to his almost fatal accident and the lessons he learned from it, Montaigne felt liberated from his fear of death and ready to enjoy the rest of his life with his newfound sense of lightness.

And so, soon after his recovery, he decided to retire from his career in law and politics and withdraw to his country estate. There, he wanted to spend the remainder of his days living a quiet, carefree life of contemplation – a life dedicated to “freedom, tranquility, and leisure,” as he wrote in an inscription he put on the wall of his library.   

Montaigne might have been a nobleman by birth, but, by his own estimation, he was just an ordinary person who’d accomplished nothing noteworthy in life. In fact, he described himself as being completely mediocre – a man with a lazy disposition, slow intellect, limited imagination, poor memory, unfocused reading habits, and a shocking lack of knowledge and understanding of most practical subjects.  

He was probably exaggerating his shortcomings, but still, even if there was only an element of truth to them, what business did such a person have devoting his life to writing about himself? That seems like the sort of thing that should be reserved for great people who’ve done great things in the world. But for everyone else, it just seems kind of arrogant, narcissistic, and self-indulgent. 

As a writer, Montaigne practiced what he preached. He stayed open minded; he considered alternative perspectives. In fact, he often did that right in front of his readers in the middle of an essay. 

He’d look at a subject from one angle and follow a line of reasoning until he reached a new question, objection, or realization that put that line of reasoning into doubt. Then he’d look at the subject from another angle and start a new line of reasoning that often directly contradicted what he’d just said. But he wouldn’t go back and erase the first line and replace it with the second. Instead, he’d just keep moving forward and leave them both there on the page for the reader to follow. 

In today’s world, where it seems like everyone is constantly spewing their thoughts and feelings all over the internet, the idea of writing in the way Montaigne wrote might not seem that innovative. But someone had to be the first one to do it, and that person was Montaigne. 

It was revolutionary at the time, and it made him a literary sensation almost immediately upon the publication of the first edition of his Essays on March 1, 1580, the day after his forty-seventh birthday. The book was highly popular among the members of French high society, even winning praise from Henri III, the king of France himself. It turned Montaigne into the Renaissance version of a celebrity.