I read recently Sarah Bakewell’s delightful book, [amazon_link id=”009948515X” target=”_blank” ]How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in one question and twenty attempts at an answer[/amazon_link]. Then by chance today (possibly via @Storythings?) came across this quotation from his [amazon_link id=”0140446044″ target=”_blank” ]Complete Essays[/amazon_link]:

“I realize that if you ask people to account for “facts”, they usually  spend more time finding reasons for them than finding out whether they  are true. … They skip over the facts but carefully deduce inferences.  They normally begin thus: “How does this come about?” But does it do so?  That is what they ought to be asking.”

Quite so. The more time I spend thinking about it – and it’s quite a lot already – the more puzzling economic facts seem to be.

[amazon_image id=”009948515X” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in one question and twenty attempts at an answer[/amazon_image]  [amazon_image id=”B002RI92VQ” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Complete Essays[/amazon_image]