The Reading Room
26 works spanning millennia of human thought. Every word freely available — no account, no paywall, no interruption.
Today’s Reading
The Iliad
Homer
“Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans.”
The Odyssey
Homer
Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy.
The IliadToday
Homer
Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans.
Tao Te Ching
Lao Tzu
The Tao that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging Tao. The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name.
The Art of War
Sun Tzu
The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin.
The Analects
Confucius
The Master said: Is it not pleasant to learn with a constant perseverance and application? Is it not delightful to have friends coming from distant quarters?
The Histories
Herodotus
These are the researches of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, which he publishes, in the hope of thereby preserving from decay the remembrance of what men have done, and of preventing the great and wonderful actions of the Greeks and the Barbarians from losing their due meed of glory.
The Republic
Plato
I went down yesterday to the Piraeus with Glaucon the son of Ariston, that I might offer up my prayers to the goddess.
Nicomachean Ethics
Aristotle
Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim.
The Enchiridion
Epictetus
Of things, some are in our power, and others are not. In our power are opinion, motivation, desire, aversion, and in a word, whatever is of our own doing.
Confessions
Saint Augustine
Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee.
The Divine Comedy
Dante Alighieri
In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost.
The Prince
Niccolo Machiavelli
All states, all powers, that have held and hold rule over men have been and are either republics or principalities.
Hamlet
William Shakespeare
Who's there? Nay, answer me: stand, and unfold yourself.
Don Quixote
Miguel de Cervantes
In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to call to mind, there lived not long since one of those gentlemen that keep a lance in the lance-rack, an old buckler, a lean hack, and a greyhound for coursing.
Leviathan
Thomas Hobbes
Nature (the Art whereby God hath made and governes the World) is by the Art of man, as in many other things, so in this also imitated, that it can make an Artificial Animal.
The Social Contract
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. One thinks himself the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they.
The Wealth of Nations
Adam Smith
The annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniencies of life which it annually consumes.
The Federalist Papers
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay
After an unequivocal experience of the inefficacy of the subsisting federal government, you are called upon to deliberate on a new Constitution for the United States of America.
Moby Dick
Herman Melville
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.
On Liberty
John Stuart Mill
The object of this Essay is to assert one very simple principle, as entitled to govern absolutely the dealings of society with the individual in the way of compulsion and control.
On the Origin of Species
Charles Darwin
When on board H.M.S. Beagle, as naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the inhabitants of South America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past inhabitants of that continent.
Crime and Punishment
Fyodor Dostoevsky
On an exceptionally hot evening early in July a young man came out of the garret in which he lodged in S. Place and walked slowly, as though in hesitation, towards K. bridge.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Friedrich Nietzsche
When Zarathustra was thirty years old, he left his home and the lake of his home, and went into the mountains. There he enjoyed his spirit and his solitude.
Beyond Good and Evil
Friedrich Nietzsche
Supposing truth is a woman—what then? Are there not grounds for the suspicion that all philosophers, in so far as they have been dogmatists, have failed to understand women?
Meditations
Marcus Aurelius
Of my grandfather Verus I have learned to be gentle and meek, and to refrain from all anger and passion.
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
