Philosophy
The Human Machine
Bennett asks us to consider our brains as the most wonderful machine, a machine which is the only thing in this world that we can control. A…
Nature
Nature is a short essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson published anonymously in 1836. It is in this essay that the foundation of transcendentalism i…
Self and Self-management
Bennett's essays always provide food for thought and bring a wry smile to the lips. Human nature, it appears, changes little over the ages, …
The Dhammapada
The Dhammapada is a foundational text of Buddhist philosophy, presenting 423 verses that encapsulate the teachings of the Buddha. Organized …
What I Believe
"The inner working of my soul, which I wish to speak of here, was not the result of a methodical investigation of doctrinal theology, o…
Totem and Taboo
Totem and Taboo: Resemblances Between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics is a book by Sigmund Freud published in German in 1913 under…
The Symposium
The Symposium (Ancient Greek: Συμπόσιον) is a philosophical book written by Plato sometime after 385 BCE. On one level the book deals with t…
The Social Contract
The Social Contract outlines Rousseau's views on political justice, explaining how a just and legitimate state is to be founded, organized a…
The Nicomachean Ethics
The Nicomachean Ethics is Aristotle's foundational text on ethics, exploring the nature of the good life and the virtues necessary for achie…
The Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals
The Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals is Immanuel Kant's seminal exploration into the foundations of moral philosophy. In t…
The Kybalion
The Kybalion presents the core principles of Hermetic philosophy, drawing from the ancient wisdom attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. This in…
The Kingdom of God is within you
The title of the book comes from Luke 17:21. It is a non-fiction work of the famous Russian author Leo Tolstoy. He wrote it after many years…
The Twilight of the Idols
Of The Twilight of the Idols, Nietzsche says in Ecce Homo: “If anyone should desire to obtain a rapid sketch of how everything before my tim…
Leviathan
Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil, commonly called Leviathan, is a book written in 1651…
Heretics
Heretics is a thought-provoking collection of essays by G. K. Chesterton, where he boldly critiques the prevailing philosophies of his time.…
Ecce Homo
The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's autobiography, Ecce Homo, was the last prose work that he wrote before his illness in 1889. Coming at …
Stoicism
This short book is part of the Philosophies Ancient and Modern series, which attempts to make Western philosophy more accessible to the gene…
Reflections on War and Death
Anyone, as Freud tells us in Reflections on War and Death, forced to react against his own impulses may be described as a hypocrite, whether…
Democracy in America
When Tocqueville visited America in the 1830s he found a thriving democracy of a kind he had not seen anywhere else. Many of his insightful …
Of the Shortness of Life
Seneca the Younger wrote the moral essay "De Brevitate Vitae" — "On the Shortness of Life" — to his friend Paulinus. The…