The one thing Putin, Xi and Trump can't outrun

And the book they should be reading

Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, at Beijing military parade marking 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. (Kremlin photo)

On February 28, 1571, the 38-year-old Michel de Montaigne marked his birthday by inscribing the fact of his retirement from public life on a wall near his library. The French nobleman was “long weary of the servitude of the court and of public employments,” say the Latin words painted in the tower of his chateau.

“In calm and freedom from all cares he will spend what little remains of his life now more than half run out.” Yet Montaigne’s dream of a carefree retirement in the Dordogne countryside proved illusory as he was drawn into France’s religious war, suffered the loss of family and friends and nearly died in a riding accident.

Still, he had enough leisure to start writing in a new genre — essays of self examination that h…