Classics Literature Philosophy

The Prince was the first great work of modern political and historical analysis, but it suffered from a tragic flaw: Machiavelli chose as his "hero" Cesare Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI, who, unknown to the author, employed murder as one of his tools of statecraft. The Prince has been studied by Hitler, Stalin, Richelieu, Bismarck, and Frederick the Great, among others.

This rather incoherent work by Russian anarchist philosopher Michael Bakunin is described in a way that he described his own life: a fragment. Rife with criticisms on Christianity and the technocracy, Bakunin presses communist values without fear of bordering extremism. Listening to this work is like walking through Bakunin’s disjointed mind; often cutting off and starting mid-sentence, including footnotes several paragraphs long as if his thoughts suddenly start to wander, as well as ending rather abruptly mid-sentence.

《周易》是一部是建立在阴阳二元论基础上对事物运行规律加以论证和描述的中国古哲学书籍。…… 《周易》是一部建立在陰陽二元論基礎上對事物運行規律加以論證和描述的中國古哲學書籍。

This gripping tale of the future anticipates Ayn Rand's later masterpieces, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. In the dark ages of the future, individuals have no name, no independence, and no values. In this faceless world, one man dares to love the woman of his choice and to seek and find knowledge.

After more than 2,300 years, the Greek philosopher Aristotle still remains one of the most influential thinkers who has ever lived. There was hardly any field of human knowledge in existence during his day in which he did not make a major contribution. Additionally, he probed areas which were never before examined. Indeed, one could make the claim that no individual person has ever known as much about this world as Aristotle. His analyses of zoology and logic paved the way for modern forensic techniques, and for which every scientist down to this day owes him a debt of gratitude.

《孟子》是《四书》之一，记录了孟子的治国思想、政治观点（仁政、王霸之辨、民本、格君心之非，民为贵社稷次之君为轻）和政治行动，属儒家经典著作。…… 《孟子》是《四書》之一，記錄了孟子的治國思想、政治觀點（仁政、王霸之辨、民本、格君心之非，民為貴社稷次之君為輕）和政治行動，屬儒家經典著作。

At the age of seventy, after a gap of twenty years, Jorge Luis Borges returned to writing short stories. In Brodie’s Report, he returned also to the style of his earlier years with its brutal realism, nightmares, and bloodshed. Many of these stories, including “Unworthy” and “The Other Duel,” are set in the macho Argentinean underworld, and even the rivalries between artists are suffused with suppressed violence. Throughout, opposing themes of fate and free will, loyalty and betrayal, time and memory flicker in the recesses of these compelling stories, among the best Borges ever wrote.

The Phaedrus by Plato, is a dialogue between Plato's protagonist, Socrates, and Phaedrus, an interlocutor in several dialogues. It was probably written around 370 BC, at about the same time as Plato's Republic and Symposium. Ostensibly about love, the discussion in the dialogue focuses on the art of rhetoric and how it ought to be practiced. The dialogue appears in the direct words of Socrates and Phaedrus, without an introduction.

This collection of sources and quotations offers a panorama of the downside of the human condition, human conduct, and human nature: vanity, errors, sins, limitations, illusions, vulnerability, misunderstanding, ignorance, self-deception, cruelty and much more, at individual, group, institutional and societal levels. Quotes—some may better be called excerpts—are selected from classics from around the world, from antiquity onward. To provide the widest coverage, it also samples contemporary works including college textbooks and trade books in two dozen fields or academic disciplines, ...

In this audiobook, you will discover many fascinating aspects of the Roman gods, goddesses, and mythological creatures. Each of the first six chapters begins with a narrative scene which helps bring the legendary and mythical characters to life.

The Nature of Things was written in the 1st century BC by Roman polymath Lucretius. It is written as a didactic poem, and explains Epicurean physics.

One of the world's most famous intellectual ghost stories, The Turn of the Screw is a haunting tale of suspected supernatural possession. A governess at a country house claims that Miles and Flora, two orphaned children in her care, are being controlled by spirits for some evil purpose. No one else can see the ghosts, and the children themselves are silent. Are they being dominated by spectral forces, or are they hiding something? Is the governess simply paranoid, or is something else going on?

《中庸》是一篇论述儒家人性修养的散文，原是《礼记》第三十一篇，相传为子思所作，是一部儒家学说经典论著。…… 《中庸》是一篇論述儒家人性修養的散文，原是《禮記》第三十一篇，相傳為子思所作，是一部儒家學說經典論著。

《左传》实质上是一部独立撰写的史书。它起自鲁隐公元年，迄于鲁悼公十四年，以《春秋》为本，通过记述春秋时期的具体史实来说明《春秋》的纲目，是儒家重要经典之一。…… 《左傳》實質上是一部獨立撰寫的史書。它起自魯隱西元年，迄於魯悼公十四年，以《春秋》為本，通過記述春秋時期的具體史實來說明《春秋》的綱目，是儒家重要經典之一。

《大学》是一篇论述儒家修身治国平天下思想的散文，相传为曾子所作，实为秦汉时儒家作品，是一部中国古代讨论教育理论的重要著作。…… 《大學》是一篇論述儒家修身治國平天下思想的散文，相傳為曾子所作，實為秦漢時儒家作品，是一部中國古代討論教育理論的重要著作。

King Arthur is probably the most famous and certainly the most legendary medieval king. From the early ninth century through the middle ages, to the Arthurian romances of Victorian times, the tales of this legendary figure have blossomed and multiplied. And in more recent times, there has been a continuous stream of books claiming to have discovered the "facts" about, or to unlock the secret or truth behind, the "once and future king". Broadly speaking, there are two Arthurs.

Selections from Henry David Thoreau's Walden and Civil Disobedience, and Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Introduction to Thoreau", "Self-Reliance", "Nature", "The American Scholar", "Education", and "Politics". Thoreau dedicated his life to preserving his freedom as a man and an artist.

This collection, first published in 1914, contains 28 short pieces in prose and verse, which present themes frequently explored in Gibran's other works. These include love, death, creation myths and spiritual realization.

"Behold! Human beings living in an underground den. Like ourselves, they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave." With that statement, Plato - one of the greatest thinkers in the history of mankind - introduces one of his of most important philosophical constructs: the relationship between truth and the image of truth.

Utilitarianism is a book released in 1863 by John Stuart Mill to provide the support for the value of utilitarianism as a moral theory and to respond to misconceptions about it. =The book consists of five chapters; the introduction to the essay, the definition of utilitarianism and its common criticisms, the rewards it can offer the methods of proving its validity and in the final chapter looks at the connection between justice and utility and argues that happiness is the foundation of justice.