Chapter 04
When We Need Someone to Blame
THAT THE SOUL EXPENDS ITS PASSIONS UPON FALSE OBJECTS, WHERE THE TRUE ARE WANTING A gentleman of my country, marvellously tormented with the gout, being importuned by his physicians totally to abstain from all manner of salt meats, was wont pleasantly to reply, that in the extremity of his fits he must needs have something to quarrel with, and that railing at and cursing, one while the Bologna sausages, and another the dried tongues and the hams, was some mitigation to his pain. But, in good earnest, as the arm when it is advanced to strike, if it miss the…
Public-domain chapter text, formatted for reading.
Critical Thinking Exercise
Track Your Misdirected Energy
For the next three days, notice when you feel frustrated or angry. Write down what triggered the feeling and what you actually did or said in response. Then ask: 'What was I really upset about?' Often you'll discover you were snapping at your kids about homework when you were actually stressed about money, or getting angry at a slow cashier when you were really frustrated about being late to something important.
Consider:
- •Pay attention to the gap between your emotional reaction and the size of the actual trigger
- •Notice if you're fighting battles you literally cannot win (like yelling at traffic or broken technology)
- •Look for patterns in what you attack versus what's actually bothering you underneath
Journaling Prompt
Write about a recent time when you got disproportionately angry at something small. What were you really fighting? How might you handle that underlying frustration differently next time?
Master this chapter. Complete your experience
Purchase the complete book to access all chapters and support classic literature
Available in paperback, hardcover, and e-book formats
You Might Also Like
Lessons from The Essays of Montaigne
Theme-by-theme analyses that connect this book to modern life skills.
Choosing Real Friendship
Hear essay 27 answer La Boétie: because it was he, because it was I.
8 chapters·Explore AnalysisEmbracing Uncertainty
Hear essay 31: nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know, and Que sais-je is a working motto.
8 chapters·Explore AnalysisLiving With Mortality
Hold essay 19: Egyptian skeletons at the feast, a tennis ball after dinner, and Vespasian dying standing.
8 chapters·Explore AnalysisSelf-Examination
Sit with essay 1 and the late report: man is fickle, and others form him while Montaigne only writes him down.
8 chapters·Explore AnalysisAuthentic Self-Expression
Watch essay 73 drop the costume: we are nothing but ceremony until the unforced face is left.
7 chapters·Explore AnalysisTesting Experience Against Theory
Stay with custom as schoolmistress, the Brazilian witnesses, and the law that makes silk more desirable by forbidding it.
8 chapters·Explore Analysis
Deep diving the literary elements.