Sarah Bakewell

Quotes

• “Knowing that the life that remained to him could not be of great length, he said, “I try to increase it in weight, I try to arrest the speed of its flight by the speed with which I grasp it. … The shorter my possession of life, the deeper and fuller I must make it.””

• “Finding his mind so filled with “chimeras and fantastic monsters, one after another, without order or purpose,” he [Montaigne] decided to write them down, not directly to overcome them, but to inspect their strangeness at his leisure. So he picked up his pen; the first of the Essays was born.”

• “Learning should be a pleasure, and children should grow up to imagine wisdom with a smiling face, not a fierce and terrifying one.”

• “As Seneca put it, life does not pause to remind you that it is running out. The only one who can keep you mindful of this is you.”

• “The peasantry … were the true philosophers of the modern world, the heirs to classical sages such as Seneca and Socrates. Only they knew how to live, precisely because they knew nothing much about anything else.”

Books by Sarah Bakewell in order

Books by Sarah Bakewell in the order they were published, from The Smart (2001) to Humanly Possible (2023).

1. 1The SmartThe Smart2001
2. 2English DaneEnglish Dane2006
3. 3How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at An Answer2010
4. 4At the Existentialist CaféAt the Existentialist Café2012
5. 5Das Café der ExistenzialistenDas Café der Existenzialisten2016
6. 6At the Existentialist CafAt the Existentialist Caf2017
7. 7En el café de los existencialistasEn el café de los existencialistas2021
8. 8Humanly PossibleHumanly Possible2023
9. 9Illustrations from the Wellcome Institute LibraryIllustrations from the Wellcome Institute Library