Montaigne, Michel de -- Essays, Book 1, ch. 19 (1.19), “That to Philosophize Is to Learn to Die [Que Philosopher, c’est apprendre à mourir]” (1572) [tr. Frame (1943), 1.20]

Dave — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 15:59:50 +0000

And so, live as long as you please, you will strike nothing off the time you will have to spend dead.

[Aussi avez vous beau vivre, vous n’en rabattrez rien du temps que vous avez à estre mort.]

Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 1, ch. 19 (1.19), “That to Philosophize Is to Learn to Die [Que Philosopher, c’est apprendre à mourir]” (1572) [tr. Frame (1943), 1.20]
(Source)

Some translators use the 1588 sequence of chapters, not the 1595, and so identify this as ch. 20.

The essay as a whole was published in the 1st (1580) edition. Ives indicates this passage was added for the 1595 edition; Frame and Screech identify it as being part of the original.

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

So may you live long enough, you shall never diminish any thing from the time you have to die.
[tr. Florio (1603)]

Besides, live as long as you can, you shall by that nothing shorten the space you are to lie dead in the Grave.
[tr. Cotton (1686)]

Besides, live as long as you can, you will thereby not at all shorten the space of time that you are to lie dead in the grave.
[tr. Cotton/Hazlitt (1877)]

However long you may live, you will thereby subtract nothing from the time that you must be dead.
[tr. Ives (1925), 1.20]

It is no good going on living: it will in no wise shorten the time you will stay dead.
[tr. Screech (1987), 1.20]

So live as long as you please, you will in no way shorten the time you have to be dead.
[tr. Atkinson/Sices (2012), 1.20]

Live as long as you want, you can never knock any time off your death.
[tr. HyperEssays (2025)]

WIST Quotations

Montaigne, Michel de -- Essays, Book 1, ch. 19 (1.19), “That to Philosophize Is to Learn to Die [Que Philosopher, c’est apprendre à mourir]” (1572) [tr. Frame (1943), 1.20]