He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.
Michel de Montaigne Essays, Book III, Chapter XIII, Of Experience (1580) Translated by Charles Cotton
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When and why it was written
- When
- From Of Experience, the last of the essays, written around 1588 when Montaigne was suffering from kidney stones.
- Why
- Montaigne is arguing against adding the disease of fear to the disease itself.
What it means
Montaigne knew pain well when he wrote this. His point is that dread gives the pain an earlier start: you suffer it before it arrives, and sometimes when it never does.
Naming the fear on paper is one way of noticing which suffering is real and which is borrowed.
Our reading of the passage cited above, not a quotation from a commentary.
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Essays, 1580
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