All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.
Michel De MontaigneRead
If you don't know how to die, don't worry; Nature will tell you what to do on the spot, fully and adequately. She will do this job perfectly for you; don't bother your head about it.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that the natural process of life and death will guide us, so we should not stress about it.
Michel De Montaigne's quote reflects a philosophical perspective on the inevitability of death and the role of nature in guiding us through it. He reassures us that one need not worry about how to approach death, as nature itself will manage this transition perfectly when the time comes. It invites us to embrace the cycle of life without fear, recognizing that we are part of a larger, natural order.
In practice
During a seminar on the philosophy of life and death, this quote can help spark discussion about how we view mortality.
All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.
All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed.
Pythagoras used to say that life resembles the Olympic Games: a few people strain their muscles to carry off a prize; others bring trinkets to sell to the crowd for gain; and some there are, and not the worst, who seek no other profit than to look at the show and see how and why everything is done; spectators of the life of other people in order to judge and regulate their own.
There is not much less vexation in the government of a private family than in the managing of an entire state.
Those who have compared our life to a dream were right... we were sleeping wake, and waking sleep.
Such as are in immediate fear of a losing their estates, of banishment, or of slavery, live in perpetual anguish, and lose all appetite and repose; whereas such as are actually poor, slaves, or exiles, ofttimes live as merrily as other folk.
I am this space my body believes in.
However much we obfuscate or ignore it, we know that the factory farm is inhumane in the deepest sense of the word. And we know that there is something that matters in a deep way about the lives we create for the living beings most within our power. Our response to the factory farm is ultimately a test of how we respond to the powerless, to the most distant, to the voiceless--it is a test of how we act when no one is forcing us to act one way or another.
I almost think that hope is for the soul what breathing is for the living organism. Where hope is lacking the soul dries up and withers.
The majority of business men are not capable of an original thought, simply because they cannot escape the tyranny of reason.
The laws of chess do not permit a free choice: you have to move whether you like it or not.
Accustom yourself not to be disregarding of what someone else has to say: as far as possible enter into the mind of the speaker.
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