Cicero

A letter is more than ink on paper. It is a mirror of the soul, a window into the inner world of its author. In his thirty-fourth essay from the first book, titled ‘A Consideration upon Cicero,’ Michel de Montaigne examines what letters and writings truly reveal about the people who compose them. He holds the famous Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero up against other great letter writers and raises fundamental questions about sincerity, vanity, and the real value of the written word. The Starting Point: A Personal Habit Montaigne opens this essay with a candid confession about his own writing habits. He admits that he rarely writes letters and that he would rather visit in person those to whom he ought to write. The written word, he acknowledges, is for him a necessary evil rather than a beloved pursuit. Yet this moment of self-reflection compels him to consider what letters actually are and what they mean in the broader context of human communication. From this personal vantage point, Montaigne leaps back to classical antiquity. He discusses the collected letters of Cicero — the great Roman statesman, philosopher, and orator who lived from 106 to 43 BC. These letters, preserved […]