Quotation
Last reviewed:
“To philosophise is to learn how to die.”
Michel de Montaigne · Renaissance humanism · Renaissance · 1580
What does it mean?
Philosophy, in this essay, prepares a person to meet death by looking at it often enough that it is not a stranger at the end. The usual reading hears a classical exercise, from Cicero and from the tradition of the Phaedo, which he tests against his own temperament rather than merely repeating. A rival reading hears morbidity, a life organised around the grave, but he says the rehearsal should free the rest of life from being secretly ruled by that fear. The sentence is the title and thesis of the essay on learning to die, in the first book.
Did Michel de Montaigne really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. The title and thesis of Essays book one, chapter 20, in Screech's translation of the French. He takes up a classical theme, especially from Cicero and the Phaedo tradition, and makes it his own. The sentence is a translation of his title-claim, not a later proverb.
Where it comes from
Essays I.20
Approximate date: 1580.
How to use it
On a Sunday in a quiet flat in York, someone finally writes down what a death would interrupt: unfinished care of a parent, the joint account, the conversation avoided since Easter. He thinks familiarity can reduce the panic, even though it does not remove the loss, and the exercise is meant to be concrete and limited. It is not a demand to dwell there every evening until the fear becomes the only hobby left.
A mindset reading
Rehearsing death can become a dark mood wearing a classical quotation, and his version is meant to be instrumental rather than decorative. The aim is a life less governed by a fear that has never been visited. If the rehearsal only deepens dread and never returns a person to ordinary duties, it has left the essay, whatever the title is still saying.
Understand the philosophy
Montaigne stands in a line that runs from Socrates through Stoic preparation for death into Renaissance humanism. The key term is learning to die, a practice of familiarity rather than a metaphysics of the afterlife. The essay form lets him try the old maxim on his own nerves. Screech's translation is the English in view for the Essays, and the French title-sentence is Montaigne's.
- death
- meaning
- knowledge
FAQ
What does it mean?
Philosophy, in this essay, prepares a person to meet death by looking at it often enough that it is not a stranger at the end. The usual reading hears a classical exercise, from Cicero and from the tradition of the Phaedo, which he tests against his own temperament rather than merely repeating. A rival reading hears morbidity, a life organised around the grave, but he says the rehearsal should free the rest of life from being secretly ruled by that fear. The sentence is the title and thesis of the essay on learning to die, in the first book.
Did Michel de Montaigne really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. The title and thesis of Essays book one, chapter 20, in Screech's translation of the French. He takes up a classical theme, especially from Cicero and the Phaedo tradition, and makes it his own. The sentence is a translation of his title-claim, not a later proverb.
Which work is it in?
Essays I.20 Approximate date: 1580.