Montaigne on Vain Stratagems: When Cleverness Becomes Folly
You’ve probably experienced it yourself: a plan that looks brilliant on paper but collapses like a house of cards in practice. Every step was mapped out, every contingency accounted for — and yet things went sideways. In the sixteenth century, Michel de Montaigne wrote a short but striking essay about exactly this phenomenon. In ‘On Vain Stratagems,’ he examines why clever tricks and overly elaborate strategies are so often doomed to fail. It’s an essay that invites you to take an honest look at your own plans and ask: at what point does cleverness become self-deception? What Is This Essay About? In Book 1, Essay 54 of his famous Essays, Michel de Montaigne turns his attention to military ruses, strategic tricks, and ingenious plans that backfire spectacularly in practice. The French word he uses — subtilités — refers to the refined cleverness people devise to gain an advantage, particularly in war and politics. Montaigne argues that such stratagems are often so convoluted that they overshoot their own purpose. The executor becomes tangled in his own web of deceit, and the result is precisely the opposite of what he intended. The essay is relatively brief compared to some of Montaigne’s more […]