“He who would die of fear had better have feared death all his life.”Michel de Montaigne · Eseuri · 1580 · I, 20
Whoever fears death all their life is already dying in installments; familiarity with death is the only cure.
Montaigne exposes a paradox: fear of death becomes itself a cause of death, and prolonged anxiety is a way of dying in installments. Someone who constantly dreads a bad diagnosis lives the illness a thousand times before it arrives. The remedy is to make peace with death early, so it cannot paralyze you when it comes.
Montaigne is not suggesting we think about death out of morbidity, but as a rehearsal. Whoever practices it in advance gets their present back. Unlearned fear steals whole days: you postpone the hard conversation, you avoid signing the papers, you keep delaying a trip put off for years. Someone who has once made peace with the ending can sign that document today without trembling. Familiarity does not harden you to death; it simply removes it from the path of everyday decisions. The rest of life becomes, paradoxically, more alive. The next step is to see what exactly happens in our bodies when fear takes over.
Why it matters For anyone postponing decisions out of fear of failure or endings, the thought shows that fear already costs you your lived life. Better to turn it into preparation than waiting.