and every moment let us picture it in our…
Page 14 and every moment let us picture it in our imagination in all its aspects. At the stumbling of a horse, the fall of a tile, the slightest pinprick, let us promptly chew on this. Well what if it were death itself?
— from The Landing (Death) · How to Live by Sarah Bakewell
In the book
Run Montaigne's drill. He taught himself, at the stumble of a horse, the fall of a tile, the smallest pinprick, to pause and ask: well — what if this were death itself? He insisted that if you do not know how to die you need not worry, because nature will tell you what to do on the spot, fully and adequately, and will do the job perfectly without your fussing. In time "don't worry about death" became his most liberating answer to the whole question of how to live — the answer that finally made it possible to do just that: live. — The Landing (Death)