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
Mark Twain's Journal Writings
This second collection of essays by Mark Twain is a good example of the diversity of subject matter about which he wrote. As with the essays…
The Fun of Getting Thin
In this short, amusing book, subtitled "How to Be Thin and Reduce The Waist Line," Samuel G. Blythe explains how he was able to lo…
Noted Speeches of Abraham Lincoln
A few of Lincoln's most famous speeches and the Lincoln-Douglas debate make for historic reading. (summary by David O)
The Book of Tea
The Book of Tea was written by Okakura Kakuzo in the early 20th century. It was first published in 1906, and has since been republished many…
On a Chinese Screen
On a Chinese Screen is a captivating collection of essays by W. Somerset Maugham, offering a window into the complexities of life in early 2…
Tolstoy on Shakespeare
In this thought-provoking essay, Leo Tolstoy presents a critical examination of William Shakespeare's works, exploring the playwright's them…
Revolution
A collection of 13 essays written between 1900 and 1908, published in 1910. The lead essay, "Revolution", outlines how and why Lon…
The Awful German Language
This long essay is a work of mock philology, one of several appendices to Twain’s travel novel, A Tramp Abroad. In it, Twain explains, compl…
Our Knowledge of the External World
Bertrand Russell gave the Lowell Lectures in March and April of 1914; these lectures produced 'Our Knowledge of the External World'. Russell…
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…
As a Man Thinketh
The burgeoning conflict between science and organized religion in the Nineteenth Century had many cultural offshoots, one of the most signif…
New Discoveries at Jamestown
Chances are, you are reading this because you are aware that Jamestown, Virginia, celebrated its 400th birthday in 2007. It was the first &q…
How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day
"Which of us lives on twenty-four hours a day? And when I say 'lives,' I do not mean exists, nor 'muddles through.'" -- Arnold Ben…
Mistakes of Moses
Robert G. Ingersoll was an extremely popular humanist orator in the late nineteenth century, and he wrote Mistakes of Moses after many bootl…
Character Building
Character Building is a compilation of speeches, given by Mr. Booker T. Washington, to the students and staff of the Tuskegee Normal and Ind…
Collected Articles of Frederick Douglass
These two articles were reproduced as an e-book by Project Gutenberg in 2008 to supplement "...several articles by Frederick Douglass,…
Public Opinion
Public Opinion by Walter Lippmann offers a profound exploration of the dynamics that shape public perception and its impact on democracy. Wr…
Memory
An in-depth series of chapters devoted to the use of our memory system; as the title suggests, how to develop our memory system, how to trai…
Catholic and Anti-Catholic History
Catholic and Anti-Catholic History presents a thought-provoking exploration of how historical narratives can be shaped into tools of propaga…
The Art of Fiction
A lecture on the art of fiction, given by the English critic Walter Besant on April 25, 1884, and an answer to the lecture by American write…