Those who have compared our life to a dream were right... we were

“Those who have compared our life to a dream were right... we were sleeping wake, and waking sleep.” Thus spoke Michel de Montaigne, the wise philosopher of France, whose words flow like a mirror held before the soul. In this profound reflection, Montaigne reveals a truth that pierces through centuries — that man, in his daily wandering, walks half-awake, half-asleep, drifting between illusion and reality without ever fully knowing which is which. The world we call real may be no more than a long dream, and the dreams we call false may at times speak with the truer voice of our spirit. His words awaken us to a sacred paradox: that we live asleep, and in our sleep, we believe we live.

Montaigne lived in an age of turmoil — wars, plagues, and the decay of certainty. Yet it was not the sword or the sickness that troubled him most, but the blindness of the human soul. He saw men chasing power, wealth, and glory as if these were eternal, yet none could say why they lived or what truth they sought. To him, it seemed that most men walked through life like dreamers, their eyes open yet their hearts sealed. They spoke of purpose but followed habit; they prayed without faith, loved without presence, lived without awakening. Thus, he called life a waking sleep — a state in which the body moves but the soul slumbers.

Consider the story of the great Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who centuries before Montaigne ruled the mightiest empire on earth, yet often meditated on how fragile reality truly is. “We are such stuff as dreams are made on,” Shakespeare would later write, echoing this same wisdom. Marcus, in his solitude, realized that even power and conquest are fleeting shadows. At night, he would dream of battles and triumphs; by day, he would live them. Yet in time he understood — both the dream and the waking world fade alike, and only the awareness of one’s soul endures. He, too, came to see that man is both dreamer and dream, never certain when he truly awakens.

Montaigne’s insight does not condemn life; rather, it calls us to wake within the dream. For if we live half-asleep, repeating words we do not mean and following paths we do not choose, then our days are like mist before the morning sun. But if we open our inner eyes — if we pause to question, to feel, to truly see — then even the dream becomes holy. To wake while living is to live twice: once in the body, once in the soul. The wise man knows that the difference between dream and life is not in the eyes, but in the depth of awareness with which we behold them both.

How many among us still sleep while waking? We hurry through our days, our minds enslaved by routine and noise. We scroll through illusions and call them connection, we labor for gold and call it purpose, we speak without silence and call it life. Yet when night falls and the world grows still, our dreams whisper to us truths we have forgotten — that joy is simple, that love is sacred, that time is fleeting. In those hours, we glimpse reality through the veil of sleep. Montaigne reminds us that both the waking and the dreaming are but mirrors of the same truth — reflections of the infinite seen through different shades of light.

To awaken, then, is not merely to open one’s eyes, but to open one’s heart. The one who awakens sees beauty even in sorrow, meaning even in impermanence. He walks through life as through a lucid dream — aware that each moment is fragile, and therefore precious. The sleeping soul clings and fears; the awakened soul accepts and rejoices. The task of life, Montaigne teaches, is not to escape the dream, but to learn to dream with wisdom — to know that while life is uncertain, our awareness can make it luminous.

And so, dear listener of these words, the lesson is clear: Do not sleep through your own existence. Do not let habit steal the wonder from your eyes, nor comfort silence your questions. Each morning, rise as if you are awakening from centuries of slumber. Gaze upon the world as if seeing it for the first time — the sky, the laughter, the pain, the faces of those you love. Let no day pass without wonder, no word without meaning, no act without heart. For though life may indeed be a dream, it is the sacred dream of your soul — and to awaken within it is the highest art of being alive.