What Do I Know? on Montaigne and the Art of Living
“My métier, my art, is to live” — Michel de Montaigne
Throughout history, when the line between truth and madness, freedom, and injustice faded into nonexistence, writing was all one could do to maintain one last semblance of reality.
The Religious Wars of 16th-century France were one of these times, where being a Catholic or Protestant meant more than being a friend or neighbor.
Caught in between this brutal age, The French Renaissance thinker Michel de Montaigne did something it seems nobody else was capable of doing: he sought beauty in humanity.
He turned inward; he wrote.
What came were his Essais — individual works on life and death, on thought, on the joys of travel, friendship, and communication — but above all how to stay true to himself, “rester soi-meme.”
Montaigne’s sole purpose was to master the art of living.
He wrote his Essais as a spiritual guide to connect with his mind, body, and soul, not merely to endure the atrocities taking place, but to live.
“My métier, my art, is to live,” Montaigne writes.
