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angelica_meigh's review
3.0
I decided to read this book because the title intrigues me and I really want to know more about it. This book however, is not focused solely on the title, it is a collection of essays! Still a pretty interesting read where I find myself underlining a bunch of lines and writing tons of "wow", "exactly!", and "what?!".
Fave lines:
- If death frightens us how can we go one step forward without anguish?
- Silly fool, you! Where your life is concerned, who has decided the term? -look at the facts and experiences instead.
- -for the soul can find no rest while she remains afraid of him.
- -for why should we fear to lose something which, once lost, cannot be regretted?
- If you have seen one day, you have seen everything. One day equals all days. There is no other light, no other night. (what a comforting thought.)
amthvst's review
3.0
when i die, may i be in the midst of my work
it’s okay…… some parts really spoke to me and some others just made me feel stupid i gotta admit
lovefrancesss's review
4.0
How we weep and laugh at the same thing - 5 stars
On conscience - 5 stars
Fortune is often found in Reason’s train - 4 stars
On punishing cowardice - 3 stars
On the vanity of words - 4 stars
To philosophize is to learn how to die - 5 stars
On conscience - 5 stars
Fortune is often found in Reason’s train - 4 stars
On punishing cowardice - 3 stars
On the vanity of words - 4 stars
To philosophize is to learn how to die - 5 stars
nusighba's review
4.0
I've never felt indifferent and connected to a book at the same time like this. It's strange how mediocre yet impactful reading this felt.
To speak of the mediocre parts, let's include the only factor playing in it— the fact that Montaigne kept repeatedly narrating some story every now and then just to convey a belief/idea. And this went on throughout the whole book, taking away half its spirit. Sure, the stories added a wider perspective to whatever he was speaking of, but they were so unnecessary. I couldn't have paid any less attention to them.
And as for the impactful parts, they really come off the most mediocre topics, ironically. As someone who enjoys a good contemplation on life and death and every phase in between, this book fulfilled my appetite for it; although not to absolute fullness, except one (getting there!).
To summarize Montaigne's pontifications— firstly, we have many aspects and facades to our emotions, and we are never defined by just one of them. Montaigne went in depth with the layers of contradictory emotions exisiting at the same time, like how we can be both pleased and devastated on the news of someone's death, and that does not imply we're completely evil or completely empathetic. He emphasized on how humans contain multitudes and complexity and the cliché "neither black nor white but grey"-ness, and that's just how their emotions are too.
He also examined conscience, and pretentiousness, and why he believed pleasure to be inherently synonymous to virtue— all in the most basic way, but still made the writing seem dynamic and never monotonous.
The last chapter, "To philosophize is to learn how to die", is one I've still been thinking about every so often since I read it a week ago.
To make peace with death, to find peace in death and to accept the fact that we're dying at this very moment— is all this chapter is about.
Let me get a bit personal about my feelings towards death pre-reading this. I had always been extremely scared of death. Especially, for the past couple years, I had almost gotten hypochondriac which seemed to stem out of this fear, and I would stress myself out to the point it literally made me sick. I have always been so afraid of my life and whatever good it has, coming to a halt.
As a Muslim, I have learned one thing regarding death through Islam, that is to always stay prepared for it, and that I am just a traveller in this world, hence my surroundings and its belongings are all temporary. But I have never been approached understandably with the topic of death. And Montaigne did just that.
I imagine Montaigne coming to terms with his own fear of death while he penned this chapter. It resonated with me on an intimate level, and I felt a reassuring hand placed on my shoulder as the chapter told me, "Your fear is normal because you are living in it. You are dying as you read this, and maybe you should finally make peace with it."
He even managed to calm my hypochondriac attitude down, saying that the reason why we are scared of an illness which hasn't yet occurred to us is because its vision is still so far away and thus blown out of proportion; than when we're actually dwelling in the illness, is when we're never really scared of it anymore.
I absolutely adored this chapter for these personal reasons and this solely played the part in making this whole book along with the author an impactful one for me. I can certainly feel a change in the way I approach death now, because I'm already dying, because I'm already in death.
To speak of the mediocre parts, let's include the only factor playing in it— the fact that Montaigne kept repeatedly narrating some story every now and then just to convey a belief/idea. And this went on throughout the whole book, taking away half its spirit. Sure, the stories added a wider perspective to whatever he was speaking of, but they were so unnecessary. I couldn't have paid any less attention to them.
And as for the impactful parts, they really come off the most mediocre topics, ironically. As someone who enjoys a good contemplation on life and death and every phase in between, this book fulfilled my appetite for it; although not to absolute fullness, except one (getting there!).
To summarize Montaigne's pontifications— firstly, we have many aspects and facades to our emotions, and we are never defined by just one of them. Montaigne went in depth with the layers of contradictory emotions exisiting at the same time, like how we can be both pleased and devastated on the news of someone's death, and that does not imply we're completely evil or completely empathetic. He emphasized on how humans contain multitudes and complexity and the cliché "neither black nor white but grey"-ness, and that's just how their emotions are too.
He also examined conscience, and pretentiousness, and why he believed pleasure to be inherently synonymous to virtue— all in the most basic way, but still made the writing seem dynamic and never monotonous.
The last chapter, "To philosophize is to learn how to die", is one I've still been thinking about every so often since I read it a week ago.
To make peace with death, to find peace in death and to accept the fact that we're dying at this very moment— is all this chapter is about.
Let me get a bit personal about my feelings towards death pre-reading this. I had always been extremely scared of death. Especially, for the past couple years, I had almost gotten hypochondriac which seemed to stem out of this fear, and I would stress myself out to the point it literally made me sick. I have always been so afraid of my life and whatever good it has, coming to a halt.
As a Muslim, I have learned one thing regarding death through Islam, that is to always stay prepared for it, and that I am just a traveller in this world, hence my surroundings and its belongings are all temporary. But I have never been approached understandably with the topic of death. And Montaigne did just that.
I imagine Montaigne coming to terms with his own fear of death while he penned this chapter. It resonated with me on an intimate level, and I felt a reassuring hand placed on my shoulder as the chapter told me, "Your fear is normal because you are living in it. You are dying as you read this, and maybe you should finally make peace with it."
He even managed to calm my hypochondriac attitude down, saying that the reason why we are scared of an illness which hasn't yet occurred to us is because its vision is still so far away and thus blown out of proportion; than when we're actually dwelling in the illness, is when we're never really scared of it anymore.
I absolutely adored this chapter for these personal reasons and this solely played the part in making this whole book along with the author an impactful one for me. I can certainly feel a change in the way I approach death now, because I'm already dying, because I'm already in death.
sarah3755's review
challenging
funny
informative
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
4.0
Definitely enjoyable and thought-provoking essays. Inconsistent Christian and even stoic thought, though. It’s hard to build a coherent picture of Montaigne’s worldview with these pieces.
evv's review
2.0
2.5/5 stars
I feel like the compilations were just a snippets from the full essays and it doesn't do justice to the author. I own the collective essays of Montaigne somewhere in my tbr pile maybe i can just read it from that book instead.
1. How We Weep and Laugh at the Same Thing - 3/5 stars
2. On conscience - 4/5 stars
3. Fortune is often found in Reason's train - 1/5 stars
4. On punishing cowardice - 2/5 stars
5. On the vanity of words - 2/5 stars
6. To philosophize is to learn how to die - 5/5 stars
I feel like the compilations were just a snippets from the full essays and it doesn't do justice to the author. I own the collective essays of Montaigne somewhere in my tbr pile maybe i can just read it from that book instead.
1. How We Weep and Laugh at the Same Thing - 3/5 stars
2. On conscience - 4/5 stars
3. Fortune is often found in Reason's train - 1/5 stars
4. On punishing cowardice - 2/5 stars
5. On the vanity of words - 2/5 stars
6. To philosophize is to learn how to die - 5/5 stars
woolfardis's review
2.0
Michel de Montaigne was a 16th Century French Renaissance philosopher and was the one of foremost essayists and contributed to making essays a popular literary genre.
How We Weep and Laugh at the Same Thing contains 6 short essays concerning philosophical contradictions, the most prevalent being that words are useless and actions are the only worthy thing, despite Montaigne being an essayist himself.
There have been a couple of Little Black Classics like this one, but somehow this one seems slow witted and less profound than any other. It was not written particularly well and I found myself having to re-read sentences several times in order to take in what Montaigne was saying. It did not flow quite so well, nor did the language or writing style fascinate me.
There were one or two notable ideas, but otherwise Montaigne has nothing particular to say that hadn't already been said, and better, by someone else.
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How We Weep and Laugh at the Same Thing contains 6 short essays concerning philosophical contradictions, the most prevalent being that words are useless and actions are the only worthy thing, despite Montaigne being an essayist himself.
There have been a couple of Little Black Classics like this one, but somehow this one seems slow witted and less profound than any other. It was not written particularly well and I found myself having to re-read sentences several times in order to take in what Montaigne was saying. It did not flow quite so well, nor did the language or writing style fascinate me.
There were one or two notable ideas, but otherwise Montaigne has nothing particular to say that hadn't already been said, and better, by someone else.
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wirsindgefangene's review
3.0
Die erste Hälfte fand ich nicht so gut, dafür das letzte Essay, was die zweite Hälfte des Buches einnimmt, umso mehr. Dieses Essay, "To philosophize is to learn how to die" empfand ich (natürlich) immer noch als sehr aktuell und auch relevant für mich selber. Wahrscheinlich werde ich es im Laufe meines Lebens noch öfter lesen. Alles in allem kann ich dieses kurze Büchlein also wirklich nur empfehlen, weil es zumindest aus kulturhistorischer Sicht interessant ist, selbst wenn einem der Inhalt der Essays nicht wirklich zusagt.