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 Prince
The Prince (Italian: Il Principe) is a political treatise by the Italian diplomat, historian and political theorist Niccolò Machiavel…
What is Man?
"What Is Man?", published by Mark Twain in 1906, is a dialogue between a young man and an older man jaded to the world. It involve…
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
Civil Disobedience is an essay by Henry David Thoreau. Published in 1849 under the title Resistance to Civil Government, it expressed Thorea…
Essays of Schopenhauer
Schopenhauer is considered to be one of the most influential philosophers of all times. Many of his ideas and quotes have been quoted largel…
The Way to Will-Power
"The Way to Will-Power" is far from a standard self-help book. With ample wit and an occasionally sardonic tone, American journali…
The Soul of Man
“(T)he past is what man should not have been. The present is what man ought not to be. The future is what artists are.”Published originally …
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…
Concerning Christian Liberty
Early in the course of the Reformation (1520) Martin Luther penned a trilogy of foundational documents addressing the Church, the Nobility a…
Nature
First published anonymously in 1836, Nature marks the beginning both of Emerson’s literary career and the Transcendentalist movement. Asking…
Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes
A classic of travel writing, this book recounts Stevenson's adventures on an extended walk through uplands and mountains in south-western Fr…
Reflections on the Revolution in France
Reflections on the Revolution in France is a seminal work by Edmund Burke, published in 1790, that offers a profound critique of the French …
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
The Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding is a shortened and simplified version of Hume's masterpiece A Treatise of Human Nature. It sough…
Alarms and Discursions
Alarms and Discursions is a captivating collection of essays by G. K. Chesterton, showcasing his unique blend of humor and insight. In this …
China and the Chinese
Herbert Allen Giles (1845-1935) spent several years as a diplomat in China and in 1897 was appointed Cambridge University’s second professor…
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…
Short Story Collection
LibriVox's Short Story Collection 006: a collection of 20 short essays and fiction in the public domain read by a variety of LibriVox member…
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
The book chronicles and vilifies its targets in three parts: "National Delusions", "Peculiar Follies", and "Philoso…
The Curious Republic of Gondour
As the title reveals, these stories are a collection of some of Mark Twain's more fanciful and eccentric works. They run the gamut from poli…
Mark Twain's Speeches
Spanning the time between 1872 and the year before he died, this collection of after-dinner speeches, random thoughts to "the press&quo…
A Room of One’s Own
This feminist essay argues for both a literal and figural space for women writers within a literary tradition dominated by patriarchy. First…