Étienne de La Boétie

I realized that I had to change normality into something better.

Montaigne experienced profound losses, including the death of his father and of his close friend Etienne de La Boétie.

After these bad experiences, he made a jarring change.

He withdrew from public life and retired to live in the countryside.

We, the people, give it.

And that's what Etienne de la Boétie was pushing.

And he was also the first one to push voluntarism.

which is like, you know what? Why don't we just do things for each other to help each other out? Like I need something, you guys help me.

This may be the most beautiful lesson of all.

Montaigne's closest intellectual friendship was with Étienne de la Boétie.

They met when Montaigne was a young magistrate, and the friendship became extraordinarily important to him.

When La Boétie died suddenly in 1563, Montaigne was devastated.

Just teasing it out.

La Boétie, Montaigne, versions of friendship, male friendship, the difficulties of framing male friendship, the total absence of any literature on male friendship.

There are novels about women.

But there are very few novels about male friendship because people are so nervous, I think, of bleeding into homosexuality, etc.