Montaigne on Vain Cunning and the Power of True Connection
You probably know the feeling: you’re in a conversation and you notice the other person isn’t really listening — they’re already rehearsing their next clever response. Or maybe you catch yourself taking a roundabout approach when the straight path would have been far better. Michel de Montaigne wrote about exactly this in the sixteenth century, in his essay ‘On Vain Subtleties.’ What he reveals about false cleverness and genuine connection strikes remarkably close to the heart of what Freemasons strive for: sincerity, brotherhood, and the courage to remove our masks. When Cleverness Becomes a Trap In Essay 54 of the first book of his famous Essays, Michel de Montaigne describes how military commanders and political leaders brought ruin upon themselves by relying on elaborate stratagems. They devised refined strategies full of unexpected twists and ambiguous manoeuvres, but the results were often the exact opposite of what they had intended. Montaigne draws a clear conclusion: the more contrived the plan, the greater the chance of failure. Not because cleverness is inherently wrong, but because it severs the connection with reality. That insight may sound simple, but try applying it to your own life. How often do you choose a convoluted approach […]
