Philosophy

Meditations
by Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was born on April 26, A.D. 121. His real name was M. Annius Verus, and he was sprung of a noble family which claimed descent from Numa, second King of Rome. Thus the most religious of emperors came of the blood of the most pious

The Destiny of Man
by John Fiske
When we study the Divine Comedy of Dante - that wonderful book wherein all the knowledge and speculation, all the sorrows and yearnings, of the far-off Middle Ages are enshrined in the glory of imperishable verse - we are brought face to face with a theor

The Physiology of Marriage: The Musings of an Eclectic Philosopher on the Happiness and Unhappiness of Married Life
by Honoré de Balzac
Marriage is not an institution of nature. The family in the east is entirely different from the family in the west. Man is the servant of nature, and the institutions of society are grafts, not spontaneous growths of nature. Laws are made to suit manners,

Superstition In All Ages
by Voltaire
Jean Meslier, born 1678, in the village of Mazerny, dependency of the duchy of Rethel, was the son of a serge weaver; brought up in the country, he nevertheless pursued his studies and succeeded to the priesthood. At the seminary, where he lived with much

Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary
by Voltaire
A senior magistrate of a French town had the misfortune to have a wife who was debauched by a priest before her marriage, and who since covered herself with disgrace by public scandals: he was so moderate as to leave her without noise.

The Antichrist
by Friedrich Nietzsche
Save for his raucous, rhapsodical autobiography, 'Ecce Homo,' 'The Antichrist' is the last thing that Nietzsche ever wrote, and so it may be accepted as a statement of some of his most salient ideas in their final form.

Beyond Good and Evil
by Friedrich Nietzsche
1. The Will to Truth, which is to tempt us to many a hazardous enterprise, the famous Truthfulness of which all philosophers have hitherto spoken with respect, what questions has this Will to Truth not laid before us!

Ethics
by Aristotle
Every art, and every science reduced to a teachable form, and in like manner every action and moral choice, aims, it is thought, at some good: for which reason a common and by no means a bad description of the Chief Good is, 'that which all things aim at.

Nietzsche Dreams of Schwarzenegger
Aristotle Would Have Liked Oprah - Lessons for Living and Other Philosophic Musings
by Ethel Diamond
Would Aristotle have liked Oprah? Diamond believes that had he lived in modern times he would have greatly admired the talk show host, for both hold the same basic belief: 'happiness depends upon ourselves.'

The Curriculum
Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson
by Mitch Albom
Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, helped you see the world as a more profound place, gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it

Why do we exist?
For the Time Being
by Annie Dillard
Why do we exist? Where did we come from? How can one person matter? Dillard searches for answers in a powerful array of images: pictures of bird-headed dwarfs in the standard reference of human birth defects; ten thousand terra-cotta figures fashioned

A Metaphysical Operation
Adam's Navel: A Natural and Cultural History of the Human Form
by Michael Sims
The story of Samson is about the sheer power of hair its magical strength, its religious energy, as interpreted from its hardy nature. But the symbolic relevance of hair did not die with Samson in the temple of Dagon; it thrives today.

Burn It or Bury It
Adam's Navel: A Natural and Cultural History of the Human Form
by Michael Sims
Hair derives its existence from within the body; it grows with an apparent life of its own; it can be separated from the body; and it is relatively difficult to destroy.

The Not Quite Naked Ape
Adam's Navel: A Natural and Cultural History of the Human Form
by Michael Sims
Even God understands the importance of a spiffy hairdo. At least his vicar in Hollywood did. In his 1956 remake of his own earlier film The Ten Commandments, Cecil B. DeMille, while surpassing even the shameless vulgarity of Samson and Delilah

The Form Complete
Adam's Navel: A Natural and Cultural History of the Human Form
by Michael Sims
Neanderthals yawned. Tutankhamen cried. Eleanor of Aquitaine belched. No doubt Murasaki Shikibu combed her hair and Askia Muhammad liked to prop up his feet. The pages of Louis XV yearned to sit down.

Monotheism and Polytheism
God Against the Gods
by Jonathan Kirsch
Nothing in human nature suggests the inevitability of the notion that there is only one god. On the contrary, men and women in every age and throughout the world have offered worship to literally thousands of gods, goddesses and godlings, male and female

Do Not Rip the Ticket or Otherwise Mutilate It
As Luck Would Have It
by Joshua Piven
Steve Roberts is having trouble reading the numbers. It's dark outside, and he's driving, so try as he might, he can barely make them out. It's late, and he's tired, and the woman on the radio is announcing the winning numbers over and over

On Anticipation
The Art of Travel (Vintage)
by Alain De Botton
It was hard to say when exactly winter arrived. The decline was gradual, like that of a person into old age, inconspicuous from day to day until the season became an established, relentless reality.

Listening To The Voice Inside
The Exquisite Risk
by Mark Nepo
The next time, I was more drawn to listen than forced. It was a few years later on my father's sailboat, which was the oasis of my youth. It was a thirty-foot ketch that he'd built. Once out to sea, I remember being pulled forward by the water

Opening The Gift
The Exquisite Risk
by Mark Nepo
Before stories were recorded, what happened to the living was told and retold around fires, on cliffs, and in the shade of enormous trees. And it is said that somewhere on the edge of what was known and unknown, a man and a woman paused in their struggles