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Essential Life Skills

Face the Essential Truths through The Essays of Montaigne

Theme-by-theme chapter breakdowns of the essential life skills in this classic work. 6 deep dives tracing how Michel de Montaigne's story teaches skills you can use today.

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The Draft You Keep Current

Sit with essay 1 and the late report: man is fickle, and others form him while Montaigne only writes him down.

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A Working Draft of Knowing

Hear essay 31: nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know, and Que sais-je is a working motto.

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The Face You Stop Performing

Watch essay 73 drop the costume: we are nothing but ceremony until the unforced face is left.

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When the Day Vetoes the School

Stay with custom as schoolmistress, the Brazilian witnesses, and the law that makes silk more desirable by forbidding it.

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Liberty Rehearsed in Advance

Hold essay 19: Egyptian skeletons at the feast, a tennis ball after dinner, and Vespasian dying standing.

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A Bond With No Invoice

Hear essay 27 answer La Boétie: because it was he, because it was I.

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