Quote of the day

"To compose our character is our duty, not to compose books, and to win, not battles and provinces, but order and tranquility in our conduct. Our great and glorious masterpiece is to live appropriately." - Montaigne, Essays (1580)

This quote comes via Sarah Bakewell in her magisterial book* on Montaigne, How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer, which is in a section of the book explaining how Montaigne drew upon the practical wisdom of the ancient Greek Stoics and Epicureans on how to live a life well. 

*There are very few books of nonfiction that I would more highly recommend than How to Live.