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 Miracle Mongers
The Miracle Mongers offers a fascinating glimpse into the world of stage performers and the extraordinary feats they claim to accomplish. Wr…
An Essay on Criticism
An Essay on Criticism is a foundational work of literary criticism by Alexander Pope, blending poetry and philosophical reflection. Written …
Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens
“These papers were originally published as prefaces to the separate books of Dickens in one of the most extensive of those cheap libraries o…
The Unreality of Time
The Unreality of Time by John McTaggart explores the intricate nature of time through a philosophical lens. In this influential essay, McTag…
Neighbors
These stories have come to me from many sources—some from my own experience, others from settlement workers, still others from the records o…
Political Ideals
This is a book by the famous 20th century British philosopher Bertrand Russell on Political Ideals. It was written during the course of Worl…
Walden
Walden (first published as Walden; or, Life in the Woods) is an American book written by noted transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau, a refl…
Vices are not Crimes
In Vices are not Crimes, Lysander Spooner presents a thought-provoking examination of the relationship between individual liberty and govern…
Second Thoughts Of An Idle Fellow
Second Thoughts Of An Idle Fellow is a collection of humorous essays by Jerome K. Jerome, offering a witty and insightful look at the quirks…
Through the Magic Door
I care not how humble your bookshelf may be, nor how lowly the room which it adorns. Close the door of that room behind you, shut off with i…
The Freedmen's Book
Lydia Maria Child, an American abolitionist, compiled this collection of short stories and poems by former slaves and noted activists as an …
Irish Impressions
“For the Irish Question has never been discussed in England. Men have discussed Home Rule; but those who advocated it most warmly, and as I …
Hidden Treasures
Hidden Treasures offers a collection of inspiring mini-biographies that illuminate the journeys of notable figures who rose from humble begi…
An Irishman's difficulties with the Dutch language
Jack O'Neill, an Irishman, has just returned from a month's holiday in The Netherlands. Before he left, he had boasted to his friends that h…
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…
Flowers from the Garden of Saint Francis
This is a collection of 365 moral admonitions of Saint Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) and other notable Franciscans. The compiler of this ant…
A Philosophical Enquiry
Burke's A Philosophical Enquiry is an important treatise in the history of philosophical aesthetics, putting forth a theory of two concepts …
Short Nonfiction Collection
A collection of short nonfiction works in the public domain. The selections included in this collection were independently chosen by the re…
The Emancipation Proclamation
On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, a pivotal document in American history that declared the…
De Profundis
This is a letter written from prison in 1897 by Oscar Wilde to Lord Alfred Douglas, in which he recounts how he came to be in prison and cha…