Read Montaigne's Essays. Penguin had a good paperback edition. When I read this in my twenties, I wished I had read it earlier. [And I wish I had kept reading it. sch 2/3/2022.] Start with "On Experience" (and then give "On Books" a read - best thing I ever read about reading and books.)
Montaigne makes the point - grounded in Christianity as well as classical writers - we are all fools because of our human nature. I wish now I had Erasmus' "In Praise of Folly" as well as Montaigne. [I was right to put these two together - the prison library had a copy of Erasmus' book, it does reinforce foolishness as inherent in human nature and punctures humanity vanity that so often endangers our existence. sch 2/3/23] I wish I had my copy of Montaigne at hand right now. What good is wisdom if we are condemned to be fools?
Honor is the possession of wise men, but fools inherit shame.
May I point out, Plato's wisest man said he knew nothing. The wise man knows he will do something foolish. (Ah, this may explain The Doobie Brothers' "What a Fool Believes.") A wise man's foolishness makes him even wiser. Fools learn nothing from their folly, and so remain fools. I say foolishness has the same relationship to the fool and to the wise as weather has to climate.
Who do we call wise and why?
Who do we call fools and why?
sch
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