"Read Montaigne," said Flaubert; "he will calm you." And indeed he does. If his philosophy could be boiled down to two mottoes, says Sarah Bakewell, they "would surely be 'anything for a quiet life' and 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it.'" He is the most disarming of philosophers, the least didactic – to the point that many people wouldn't consider him a philosopher at all. "Of all authors Montaigne is one of the least destructible," said TS Eliot. "You could as well dissipate a fog by flinging hand-grenades into it."
He could also be literally disarming, as an anecdote from this book shows: "Once, he invited a troop of soldiers in, only to realise that they were plotting to take advantage of his hospitality by seizing the place. They abandoned the plan, however, and the leader told Montaigne why: he had been 'disarmed' by the sight of his host's 'face and frankness.'"
