An Epictetus quote about the way we judge events sits painted on a ceiling beam in Michel de Montaigne's library tower, and I went to see it in person. In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, recorded at a campsite in France the day after my visit, I share what stood out about the place and the line he chose to keep overhead.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. Montaigne was not a Stoic, yet he had dozens of sayings painted on his beams, some running left to right, others right to left or upside down, so he could read them from any angle while he paced around his study.
The quote from Epictetus says that things themselves do not disturb us, only the opinions we form about them. Montaigne tested that idea on himself, and one of his essays tells of a friend whose body failed him for no physical reason, only because his mind expected it to. We look at why a man who doubted most claims to certainty kept this one in view, how modern cognitive behavioral therapy grew from the same insight, and what changes when we separate an event from the story we add on top of it.
You do not need a tower full of maxims to try this, because you can pause, look at what actually happened, and ask which parts of your distress come from the facts and which come from the colour you added.
An interview with our guide at the tower will follow in a later episode.
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