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The Slow Lantern

No. 14 · Winter

Section

Classic Ideas

Public-domain thinkers such as Montaigne, Seneca and Franklin, retold in plain words.

Entries

  1. 01 Classic Ideas

    Chesterton's Fence, Explained With a Garden Gate

    Before you pull down a fence, find out why someone put it up. G.K. Chesterton's old idea is simple, a little humbling, and it fits an ordinary Tuesday better than you'd expect.

    9 min Newest
  2. 02 Classic Ideas

    Montaigne on Conversation: Why Disagreement Can Be a Pleasure

    Four centuries before anyone told us to "listen actively", Michel de Montaigne argued that the best conversation is one where you might leave knowing something new, not one you win. Here is the idea in plain words, with a few small habits for the kitchen table.

    9 min
  3. 03 Classic Ideas

    Seneca on Anger, in Everyday Words

    Roughly two thousand years ago, Seneca suggested that most of our choice about anger lives in the gap between the spark and the reaction. It turns out to be a handy thing to practise on a slow queue or a late bus.

    7 min
  4. 04 Classic Ideas

    Montaigne and the Art of Changing Your Mind: Where the Essay Began

    Michel de Montaigne treated his opinions as trials rather than verdicts, and that made changing his mind feel ordinary instead of embarrassing. Here is where the habit came from, how it travelled, and a small practice for using it on an ordinary Tuesday.

    8 min
  5. 05 Classic Ideas

    Franklin and the Art of Small Experiments on Yourself

    Benjamin Franklin tried out habits, wrote down how they went, and was honest about the results. Here is how to borrow that method for a two-week trial of your own, and why even a fizzled experiment teaches you something.

    9 min