"Once conform, once do what others do because they do it, and a kind of lethargy steals over all the finer senses of the soul"
About this Quote
Montaigne makes conformity sound less like social glue and more like a sedative. The danger isn’t merely that you copy the crowd; it’s that the act of copying trains you to stop noticing. “Once conform” lands like a warning shot: the first compromise is the decisive one because it rewires your inner barometer. He’s not describing a single bad choice but a habit that dulls perception, curiosity, and moral discrimination - “the finer senses of the soul” - the capacities that let a person taste nuance, register discomfort, and think independently.
The subtext is especially biting for a writer who built his project around self-scrutiny. Montaigne’s essays are essentially a long refusal to outsource judgment. So when he says we do what others do “because they do it,” he’s indicting the laziest form of reasoning: imitation masquerading as evidence. Conformity becomes a shortcut that saves you the effort (and risk) of forming a view, and the payment is spiritual anesthesia.
Context matters: Montaigne writes in a France ripped by religious civil wars, when “custom” and faction could pass for truth and dissent could be fatal. In that world, going along isn’t neutral; it’s a way power reproduces itself. His phrasing is psychological rather than political, but the implication is civic: a population trained to obey fashions and orthodoxies will eventually lose the sensory equipment required for conscience. The line works because it treats conformity as an internal erosion - quiet, incremental, and terrifyingly comfortable.
The subtext is especially biting for a writer who built his project around self-scrutiny. Montaigne’s essays are essentially a long refusal to outsource judgment. So when he says we do what others do “because they do it,” he’s indicting the laziest form of reasoning: imitation masquerading as evidence. Conformity becomes a shortcut that saves you the effort (and risk) of forming a view, and the payment is spiritual anesthesia.
Context matters: Montaigne writes in a France ripped by religious civil wars, when “custom” and faction could pass for truth and dissent could be fatal. In that world, going along isn’t neutral; it’s a way power reproduces itself. His phrasing is psychological rather than political, but the implication is civic: a population trained to obey fashions and orthodoxies will eventually lose the sensory equipment required for conscience. The line works because it treats conformity as an internal erosion - quiet, incremental, and terrifyingly comfortable.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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