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Essays, Letters & Speeches — page 3
1,469 public-domain essays, letters & speeches books, summarised. Page 3 of 31.
The Arena, Volume 4, No. 22, September, 1891
Various
Bold debates on religious heresy, women's dress reform, and corporate wealth collide with quiet scenes of Midwestern small-town life in a vivid snapshot of late-nineteenth-century American reform culture.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 57, No. 356, June, 1845
Various
An intimate, sweeping panorama of nineteenth-century European culture, this volume captures a restless era wrestling with literature, art, history, and the turbulent depths of the human mind.
The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
A dark, unyielding mirror is held up to human nature, stripping away societal pretenses to reveal the raw, instinctual urges that quietly drive our civilization.
By the Christmas Fire
Samuel McChord Crothers
A warm hearth fire provides the ideal setting to rethink human progress, challenge rigid idealism, and reclaim the joyful flexibility of childhood imagination.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 107, September, 1866: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics
Various
In the wake of the American Civil War, a premier nineteenth-century periodical gathers fiction, political debate, natural philosophy, and poetic reflection to probe a rebuilding nation's soul.
The World's Best Poetry, Volume 10: Poetical Quotations
Unknown
Navigating the vast expanse of poetic history requires a map, and this volume offers a structured compass built from the memorable fragments of the Western literary canon.
Three Things
Elinor Glyn
Unrelenting personal responsibility and clear-eyed common sense are the only reliable foundations for lasting peace, personal growth, and domestic happiness.
The Perfect Gentleman
Ralph Bergengren
A gentle, wry look at the daily anxieties and small absurdities that make up a man's social existence.
The Continental Monthly , Vol. 2 No. 5, November 1862: Devoted to Literature and National Policy
Various
A nation tearing itself apart at home finds its fiery voice mirrored in print, where political arguments, serialized fiction, and cultural commentary converge to define a country fighting for its future.
Maxims and Reflections
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
A sharp observation can unlock centuries of human experience, transforming quiet personal reflection into universal truth.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 102, April, 1866: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics
Various
A brilliant, turbulent old man dies in exile, while a community of readers suddenly remembers he was still alive.
Early Greek Philosophy & Other Essays: Collected Works, Volume Two
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
A fiercely iconoclastic mind tears back the polished façade of classical civilization to expose the blood, violence, and glorious instincts that truly drive human culture.
Thoughts Out of Season, Part II
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
In a culture numbed by historical data and superficial progress, genuine existence requires a radical shift away from mere knowledge toward the cultivation of genius.
Franklin's Way to Wealth
Benjamin Franklin
A crowd of anxious country folk gather at an auction to complain about crushing taxes, only to be offered an unsparing lecture on how their own laziness, vanity, and financial recklessness exact a far heavier toll.
Petrarch's Letters to Classical Authors
Francesco Petrarca
An impassioned scholar addresses his departed heroes across the abyss of centuries, offering tribute, sharp criticism, and a mourning cry for the fragile texts left behind in a decaying world.
Letters of Abelard and Heloise: To which is prefix'd a particular account of their lives, amours, and misfortunes
Peter Abelard
A intellectual match between brilliant minds degenerates into a devastating public scandal, forcing two lovers into the solemn isolation of the monastic life while their passionate letters keep their tragic fire burning.
Old and New Masters
Robert Lynd
To observe a world of grand artistic ambitions and human absurdities with a cool, sharp, yet irrepressibly vivid critical eye is to master the craft of literary assessment.
The Madman: His Parables and Poems
Kahlil Gibran
Stripped of socially expected disguises, a newly awakened outcast discovers that true spiritual freedom exists only when society rejects you.
Acres of Diamonds: Our Every-day Opportunities
Russell H. Conwell
Greatest fortunes and grandest opportunities often lie unnoticed in our own backyards, waiting for common sense to recognize what grand ambition overlooks.
More Trivia
Logan Pearsall Smith
A collection of witty and philosophical reflections on life, offering a unique perspective on everyday experiences and human nature.
The Indolence of the Filipino
José Rizal
A sharp, piercing critique of colonial stagnation, this essay dismantles the myth of inherent racial laziness by exposing the systemic failures that stifled a once-thriving society.
Suspended Judgments: Essays on Books and Sensations
John Cowper Powys
To navigate the vast, indifferent currents of life, one must cultivate the art of withholding final conclusions, allowing the mysteries of literature and existence to remain open, fluid, and profoundly felt.
Philosophy and the Social Problem
Will Durant
Philosophy is not a dusty academic relic but a vital, urgent tool for fixing our broken world. This work argues that we must stop merely interpreting society and start actively remaking it through organized human intelligence.
Woman in the Nineteenth Century: and Kindred Papers Relating to the Sphere, Condition and Duties, of Woman
Margaret Fuller
HOOK This collection of essays and private writings serves as a foundational call for women to claim their intellectual independence, arguing that personal development must precede any lasting social or political equality.
Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology
C. G. (Carl Gustav) Jung
This collection of foundational essays marks a pivotal divergence in early twentieth-century psychology, offering a bridge between clinical case studies and the expansive, symbolic interpretation of the human psyche.
The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
The world is a place of suffering and profound irrationality, yet within it, the individual may find clarity through detached observation and the honest pursuit of truth. These reflections offer a bracing, unsentimental look at human existence.
The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 4, April 1810
Unknown
This collection serves as a historical window into the theater of the early nineteenth century, blending scholarly critique of the ancient stage with the vibrant, dramatic language of classic English comedy.
The Practice of the Presence of God the Best Rule of a Holy Life
Lawrence, of the Resurrection, Brother
This collection of letters and recorded conversations offers an intimate, practical guide to maintaining a constant awareness of the divine in the midst of ordinary life. It serves as a timeless manual for finding spiritual tranquility.
The Greatest Thing In the World and Other Addresses
Henry Drummond
The path to a life of peace and purpose is not found through complex theological study, but by simply reflecting the character of Christ. This collection of addresses offers a practical, grounded guide to the spiritual life.
A Defence of Poetry and Other Essays
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Poetry is the lightning-rod for the human spirit, a transformative force that turns the leaden weights of habitual existence into golden perceptions of beauty and truth.
The Free Press
Hilaire Belloc
The modern newspaper is not a neutral messenger of truth, but a commercial instrument designed to suppress news and manufacture consent. This incisive analysis exposes the mechanics of how, in an era of unchecked capitalism, the press became a tool for an invisible, unaccountable oligarchy.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, No. 382, August 1847
Various
This volume captures the intellectual, geographical, and social preoccupations of mid-nineteenth-century Britain through a diverse collection of essays, narratives, and critical reviews. It serves as a window into an era that balanced rigorous philosophical inquiry with a burgeoning appetite for travel, historical…
The Writings of Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine
Hook A radical call for the primacy of individual reason over institutional dogma, written from the shadow of the guillotine and the depths of a revolutionary prison.
Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards
Jonathan Edwards
The divine majesty, the frailty of the human soul, and the terrifying reality of eternal consequences form the core of these urgent, intellectually rigorous meditations on the nature of God and the necessity of salvation.
At the Deathbed of Darwinism: A Series of Papers
Eberhard Dennert
This collection of essays documents the perceived decline of Darwinian theory at the turn of the 20th century, capturing a moment when scientific consensus began to question the sufficiency of natural selection.
Index of the Project Gutenberg Works of Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
A profound exploration of human existence, this collection maps the relentless drive of the individual will against the backdrop of a vast, often indifferent universe. It offers a rigorous, sometimes bracing, guide to understanding the self and the world.
Apologia Diffidentis
O. M. (Ormonde Maddock) Dalton
Bashfulness is not a mere phase of youth, but an inward stain that dyes the very fibers of one's being. This meditation seeks to justify a life spent in the shadows of reticence.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 100, February, 1866: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics
Various
A century and a half of American intellectual history breathes through these pages, capturing the raw, immediate aftermath of the Civil War. It serves as both a historical record and a window into a fractured national consciousness.
Mussolini as revealed in his political speeches (November 1914-August 1923)
Benito Mussolini
This collection of political oratory chronicles the rise of a movement from the trenches of the First World War to the consolidation of absolute power in Italy.
The Soul of Man under Socialism
Oscar Wilde
The individual soul is a flower that can only bloom in the light of absolute freedom, far from the stifling weight of poverty and the soul-crushing demands of altruism.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 54, No. 334, August 1843
Various
This August 1843 issue offers a panoramic window into the Victorian mind, blending scholarly literary criticism, biting political commentary, and serialized fiction into a singular, sprawling mosaic of the era’s intellectual life.
Quotes and Images From The Works of Michel De Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
To navigate the complexities of human existence, one must look inward, embracing the contradictions of the self and the inevitability of death with a cheerful, skeptical, and profoundly honest spirit.
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 3, September 1864: Devoted To Literature And National Policy
Various
This collection of essays and commentary captures the intellectual and political fever of the American Civil War, offering a window into the preoccupations of a nation in the midst of a transformative, violent crisis.
The Craft of Fiction
Percy Lubbock
A novel is not merely a story told; it is a structure built. This guide examines how the greatest masters of fiction have engineered their worlds to hold the reader’s attention.
The Erotic Motive in Literature
Albert Mordell
A daring attempt to decode the hidden lives of authors through the lens of early psychoanalysis, this work argues that every poem, novel, and play is a secret diary of its creator’s unconscious desires.
Americanism
Theodore Roosevelt
This collection of addresses serves as a forceful, urgent manifesto on the nature of American identity and the responsibilities of citizenship. It argues that a successful republic requires a unified national spirit, undivided loyalty, and a commitment to duty over individual rights.
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 4, August, 1864: Devoted To Literature And National Policy
Various
This mid-nineteenth-century periodical serves as a vibrant, immediate record of a nation in the throes of civil war, blending urgent political commentary with the literary sensibilities of its time. It acts as both a battlefield dispatch and a reflection on the soul of a democracy.
Table Talk: Essays on Men and Manners
William Hazlitt
These essays serve as a masterclass in the art of thinking aloud, capturing the fleeting sparks of human observation with the steady, unpretentious hand of a seasoned conversationalist. They turn the mundane details of daily life into profound meditations on the nature of character, ambition, and the quiet dignity…