James Harris

Meditations is a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 AD, recording his private notes to himself and ideas on Stoic philosophy....

The Epistulae morales ad Lucilium (Latin for moral letters to Lucilius) are a collection of 124 letters which were written by Seneca at the end of his life, during his retirement, and written after he had worked for the Emperor Nero for fifteen years.

There are various translations and many self-help new-age books based on the Tao Te Ching, one of the most profound spiritual books ever to be written thousands of years ago by a sage who was known as Lao Tzu. The beauty of the book is that it is left open to interpretation. The problem with...

Self Reliance is an essay written in 1841 by Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains the most thorough statement of one of Emerson's recurrent themes: the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his own instincts and ideas. This essay is an analysis into the...

El Cid is the oldest Spanish epic poem preserved. It is based on the true story of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, known as El Cid, and it takes place during the Spanish Reconquest. This is the story of a brave man who took on the challenge of recovering his home country after it had been besieged. This...

The Prince is a 16th-century political treatise by the Italian diplomat and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli. The Prince is sometimes claimed to be one of the first works of modern philosophy, especially modern political philosophy, in which the effective truth is taken to be more...

The Ingenious Nobleman Sir Quixote of La Mancha, is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Published in two volumes, in 1605 and 1615, Don Quixote is considered the most influential work of literature from the Spanish Golden Age and the entire Spanish literary canon. It regularly appears high...

The Discourses of Epictetus are a series of extracts from the teachings of the Stoic philosopher Epictetus. This is the complete version containing books one - four. Each book has been carefully adapted in to modern English to allow for easy listening. Enjoy!...

Sinbad A poor porter stops to take a rest on the bench outside the gate of a rich merchant's house, where he complains to Allah about the injustice of a world which allows the rich to live in ease while he must work hard and yet remain poor. The owner of the house hears about this and requests...

The Apology of Socrates, by Plato, is the dialogue that presents the speech of legal self-defence, which Socrates presented at his trial for corruption, in 399 BC. Specifically, the Apology of Socrates is a defence against the charges of "corrupting the young" and "not believing in the gods...

The Enchiridion or Manual of Epictetus (Enchiridion is Greek for "that which is held in the hand") is a short manual of Stoic ethical advice compiled by the Greek philosopher Epictetus. This manual has been carefully adapted in to modern English to allow for easy listening. Enjoy!

De Brevitate Vitae (frequently referred to as On the Shortness of Life in English) is a moral essay written by Seneca the Younger, a Roman Stoic philosopher, to his father-in-law Paulinus. The philosopher brings up many Stoic principles on the nature of time, namely that men waste much of it in...