The Wisdom Letter #304

5 quotes from Montesquieu, Jean-Paul Sartre, and more.

✹ For today’s edition of Wisdom Letter, we have carefully curated five bite-sized quotes from brilliant thinkers such as Montesquieu and Jean-Paul Sartre, each paired with a philosophical question designed to provoke deep reflection.

Quote № 01:

“A man should be mourned at his birth, not at his death.”

— Montesquieu (1689–1755), “Lettres Persanes”

~ Follow-up Question:

If life begins with inevitable suffering and ends in release or peace, what does this suggest about the moral and existential weight of birth itself—is it an initiation into a world of pain, and if so, how should that alter our cultural and emotional attitudes toward new beginnings?

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Quote № 02:

“You know, it's quite a job starting to love somebody. You have to have energy, generosity, blindness. There is even a moment, in the very beginning, when you have to jump across a precipice: if you think about it you don't do it.”

— Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980), “Nausea”

~ Follow-up Question:

Can true emotional commitment ever be fully rational, or is the necessity of “jumping across a precipice” evidence that love is inherently an act of existential faith, one that defies reason in order to access something deeper than logic allows?

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Quote № 03:

“The intolerant can be viewed as free-riders, as persons who seek the advantages of just institutions while not doing their share to uphold them.”

— John Rawls (1921–2002), “A Theory of Justice”

~ Follow-up Question:

To what extent should a just society tolerate those who fundamentally reject its principles, and where—if anywhere—must the line be drawn between protecting freedom of conscience and defending the very structures that make freedom possible?

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Quote № 04:

“Religion will not regain its old power until it can face change in the same spirit as does science. Its principles may be eternal, but the expression of those principles requires continual development.”

— Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947), “Science and the Modern World”

~ Follow-up Question:

If the core truths of a spiritual tradition are indeed eternal, how can its followers reconcile the need for evolving expression with a fear of compromising sacred authority—does adaptation threaten the divine, or reveal it more fully?

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Quote № 05:

“No bloody or unbloody change of society can eradicate the evil in man: as long as there will be men, there will be malice, envy and hatred, and hence there cannot be a society which does not have to employ coercive restraint.”

— Leo Strauss (1899–1973), “The City and Man”

~ Follow-up Question:

If malice, envy, and hatred are intrinsic to human nature, can the aspiration for a truly just or peaceful society ever be more than an illusion—or is the struggle for justice still meaningful even in the shadow of inevitable human flaws?

✽ Thank you for reading today’s Wisdom Letter.

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