Certain free-spirited people, according to Nietszche, are perfectly satisfied with a minor position or a fortune that just meets their needs; for they will set themselves up to live in such a way that a great change in economic conditions, even a revolution in political structures, will not overturn their life with it.
The price to pay? He added the comment that such a person will tend to have cautious and somewhat short-winded relationships with those around him.
Did he have Montaigne in mind when formulating these theories? is the question posed by Sarah Bakewell in her brilliant book ‘How to Live – A life of Montaigne in one question and twenty attempts at an answer’.
And if Montaigne chose an emotional firewall to protect himself from further onslaughts, why not?
odespinner 