: 2.3 Avoidance I’ve never enjoyed handling Montaigne’s subject here. The question of suicidal rights and activities …
: 2.2 Drunkenness I have a lot of thoughts about alcohol these days, which seems to be on the decline culturally, but …
: 2.1 Inconsistency At the risk of annoying my theoretical readers, I’m going to 1) jump right into the start of the …
: 57. Aging We now reach the end of volume one. Reading through Montaigne’s essay On Age again, I see glimmers …
: 56. Worshipping I try to be respectful of people of faith, even though I am not religious and therefore have no …
: 55. Odors I’m reminded each time towards the end of the Montaigne’s first volume that some of his weakest …
: 54. Middle Path In closing, Montaigne muses again over who might enjoy his essays, writing: if these essays were …
: 53. Self Knowledge This essay from Montaigne begins with the following line: If we sometimes spent a little …
: 52. The Trappings I have focused in past efforts on what Montaigne has to say about leaders of the ancient eras who …
: 51. Vain Words Montaigne begins by attacking rhetoricians in this essay, but I know that I shouldn’t take it …
: 50. Virginia Woolf Hours he would spend thus, with his pipe, of an evening, thinking up and down and in and out of the …
: 49. Eccentricity There’s a conflict in Montaigne concerning culture. He uses this essay to return to the matter of …
: 48. Not Caring Back again to my favorite, non-favorite essay, Montaigne’s take on war horses. I’ve covered this …
: 47. Fortune This essay is basically part two of what Montaigne began with his 24th, arguing that we cannot take …
: 46. Names I suppose there are numerous ways I could address this essay. I could talk about the names I’ve …
: 45. Battles Today marks the end of summer, at least as Americans understand it, which means that our culture is …
: 44. Sleep and Anxiety The Sunday before Labor Day is the perfect time to take up an essay about sleep disturbances brought …
: 43. Novelty I’m going to jump to the end of Montaigne’s essay about sumptuary laws — a rather archaic topic — …
: 42. Inequality This Montaigne essay is far more interesting for what is left unsaid. As noted in essay 13 this …
: 41. Glory And Montaigne follows up his essay where he trashes Cicero by making another Cicero quote the tonal …
: 40. Moods I suppose it is fitting that I come upon one of Montaigne’s most annoying essays when I’m in a …
: 39. Peace I have taken enough laps around Montaigne to know that there is no definitive read of him, and he …
: 38. Cause and Effect The other day on Instagram — which I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit I use, it’s barely more …
: 37. Models The lines that open this essay I’ve taken to heart as much as anything Montaigne has written and I …
: 36. Clothing Montaigne uses clothing as another vantage point for viewing culture — amazed that human beings are …
: 35. Fathers My past readings of this essay drew the conclusion that Montaigne considered his father’s ideas …
: 34. Randomness The last two essays I filled discussing a movie that I watched in a hotel room, trying to wind down …
: 33. Obsession, Part 2 As chance would have it, the next Montaigne essay tracks to something else I want to convey about …
: 32. Obsession Traveling with one of my sons to drop him off at college, I decided to rent the movie “Obsession” at …
: 31. The Universal The Cannibals raises one of the thorniest ethical questions of our times — how do you balance …
: 29-30. Moderation I’m going to skip over the sonnets that Montaigne substituted for his Treatise on Involuntary …
: 28. Loving Friendship Personal expression remains a continuing struggle for me as a writer. I have a tendency to either …
: 27. Folly Montaigne admits that when he was younger, he had disdain for people who believed in folktales, …
: 26. Educating Kids Montaigne picks up his points about life and education in the next essay, and it’s another where he …
: 25. Life’s Lessons If there’s a theme to this current lap around Montaigne, it’s my attempt to apply his final lessons …
: 24. Luck So the whole argument of this Montaigne essay is that employing the same people strategy in …
: 23. Customs We live in strange times, when customs and laws are becoming increasingly more difficult to tell …
: 22. Creative Destruction I was thinking of this line from Montaigne recently: our private wishes are for the most part born …
: 21. Imagine When I think of imagination, I think of creativity, and perhaps daydreaming and ideation. So my …
: 20. Preparation The title of this Montaigne essay — To Philosophize is to Prepare to Die — isn’t Montaigne’s …
: 19. Judging Happiness This essay always rubbed me the wrong way. What is the point of judging someone’s happiness when …
: 18. Fear What he feared most was fear, that’s what Montaigne wrote in this essay. He describes the kind of …
: 17. Dilettantes It’s strange when Montaigne raises something true, but also the opposite of how he behaves. This …
: 16. Life Narratives Montaigne comes back to the question of cowardice quite a bit and starts his examination by …
: 15. Hopeless Defense After that epic essay on a strange misreading of Greek philosophy, Montaigne returned to more …
: 14. Opinions Montaigne begins this deep chapter about interpretations with his own misinterpretation. He opens …
: 13. Equality There’s a subtext throughout Montaigne’s essays, made more complicated by his belief that customs …
: 12. Resilience Even though I’m critical of the current vogue for stoicism, I do like the philosophy’s emphasis on …
: 11. Letting Go and The Divine Montaigne took some risks by taking a stand against divination — it was core to the folk religious …
: 10. Eloquence I’ll keep this one short because it’s a simple point. Some of us were either born with or developed …
: 9. Misunderstanding The ninth essay is supposedly about lying, but that never felt right to me. He entered the essay …
: 8. Wandering Minds I can’t imagine how boring life on a 16th century French estate might be. Montaigne had his library, …
: 7. Our Intentions One of Montaigne’s most important thoughts is buried in the middle of his 7th essay: We cannot be …
: 6. Danger I’ve mentioned this in my book — I don’t see why Montaigne felt obliged to stretch out his thin …
: 5. Trust Montaigne’s fifth essay ends this way: I put my trust easily in another man’s word. But I should do …
: 4. Unruliness Montaigne defaults to discussing how the mind goes wrong — displacing anger onto objects and …
: 3. Beyond Us A few days ago, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, went on a podcast and declared that “the singularity …
: 2. Sadness and Absence This morning I had a virtual Rotary club meeting, where the themes of gift giving and grief somehow …
: 1. The Same End When I began my journey into Michel de Montaigne in 2011, I behaved like I often do, jumping in …
: Turning Inward Over the past few months, I’ve stepped back from my own writing, which is ironic because I was …
: All Stories are Fictions I’ve spent my life shaping narratives for myself and others. I still enjoy trying to make sense of …
: Solitude Last week I published the second edition of “Essai by Essay,” my book of essays about Michel de …
: Hidden This day began in darkness. I don’t wish to waste words on the disgusting statements by President …
: Easter Viewing I devoted Easter Sunday to a handful of religious themed movies, starting last night with Martin …
: Essai By Essay: Second Edition I’m happy to announce that I’ve just published the second edition of my Montaigne Project book ESSAI …
: Delayed Reactions After that disturbing blow up on air, you’d think that UBS executives would be thinking “we messed …
: A Simpler Time These days when someone is fired from a job, HR escorts them out of the building immediately and the …
: September 22, 1975 Network begins on a real day, in a real city, with real network newscasters sharing real news. We’re …
: The World of Network “Network” was released in December 1976, but it truly inhabited the United States of 1973-75. It’s …
: My Other Project The other writing project staring me in the face is the one about “Network.” Actually, there’s an …
: State of the Projects Now that my Montaigne Project URL is back online, perhaps I should start by discussing what’s up …
: Watched: Network 🎬 My next Movies Scene By Scene project will be the Sidney Lumet directed film …
: First Orders of Business I am bringing back my old URL for My Montaigne Project so that I can continue work on a couple of …