Essays & Short Works
- Philosophical Travelogues
- Essays on Society and Culture
- Essays for Personal Growth
- Explorations in Science and Thought
- Explorations in Psychology
- Political Essays and Reflections
- Political Essays and Manifestos
- Philosophical Essays on Existence
The World as Will and Idea
In this work, Schopenhauer explains his fundamental idea that at the root of the reality we see around us is a Will that eternally, insatiab…
Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex
In this little book Freud discusses three areas of human sexuality: 1. Sexual perversions or aberrations. In this essay, Freud concludes th…
Capital and Interest
Frédéric Bastiat was an early 19th century French economist/statesman whose common sense essays tried to battle the rise of so…
What Prohibition Has Done to America
In What Prohibition Has Done to America, Fabian Franklin presents a concise but forceful argument against the Eighteenth Amendment of the U.…
Tolstoy on Shakespeare
In this thought-provoking essay, Leo Tolstoy presents a critical examination of William Shakespeare's works, exploring the playwright's them…
The Tao Teh King
Lao-Tze's Tao Teh King illuminates The Tao: a guiding principle of the universe and all within it. By exploring the nature of dualities and …
Eminent Victorians
On Modern Library's list of 100 Best Non-Fiction books, "Eminent Victorians" marked an epoch in the art of biography; it also help…
Southern Horrors
Thoroughly appalled and sickened by the rising numbers of white-on-black murders in the South since the beginning of Reconstruction, and by …
Funeral Oration on Meletius
Saint Meletius was Patriarch of Antioch from 360 until his death in 381. One of his last acts was to preside over the First Council of Const…
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World
Philip Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, was at one time Ambassador to the Hague, negotiated the second Treaty of Vienna, was a founding gover…
The Wound Dresser
The Wound Dresser offers a poignant glimpse into the heart of the American Civil War through the eyes of Walt Whitman. This collection of le…
My Path to Atheism
My Path to Atheism is a remarkable document in many ways, not least that it was written by a woman in Victorian England, not the most open f…
Labor and Freedom
"While there is a lower class I am in it; While there is a criminal class I am of it; While there is a soul in prison I am not free.&qu…
All Things Are Possible
A passionate exponent of Russian Existentialism, Lev Shestov is little known in the English-speaking world but had an extensive influence on…
Opticks
The famous physicist Sir Isaac Newton lectured on optics from 1670 - 1672. He worked on refraction of light into colored beams using prisms …
The Morals
The Moralia (or The morals or Matters relating to customs and mores) is a work by the 1st-century Greek scholar Plutarch of Chaeronea. It is…
The Encantadas or Enchanted Isles
The Encantadas or Enchanted Isles invites listeners to explore the haunting beauty and stark realities of the Galápagos Islands throu…
The Madman
Two short books by the Lebanese-American writer, poet, and mystic. Reflections on existence and life, purpose and meaning. His most famous w…
The Moral Equivalent of War
The Moral Equivalent of War, the last public utterance of William James, is significant as expressing the opinions of a practical psychologi…
Unto this Last
Unto This Last is a seminal work by John Ruskin that challenges the foundations of political economy and critiques the prevailing capitalist…