ΒΙΒΛΙΟΘΗΚΗ · The Library

The Library

Some books Caleb has read and marked up since 2018.

ΨΥΧΗΣ ΙΑΤΡΕΙΟΝ, a hospital for the soul: the words over the door of the library at Thebes.

Hall Αʹ · The Catalogue

Every book on the shelves

From Readwise, where Caleb keeps what he marks: one of his highlights from each book, and the year he last marked it. On the shelves, the more he marked, the thicker the spine; hover a book there for another highlight. Back out into the Agora.

On the reading tablesLately

The 36 books Caleb has marked most recently, newest first. They lie open and stacked on the tables down the middle of the hall.

  1. You Must Change Your LifePeter Sloterdijk2026Wherever one encounters members of the human race, they always show the traits of a being that is condemned to surrealistic effort. Whoever goes in search of humans will find acrobats.
  2. The Bow and the LyreSeth Benardete2026There is perhaps in the entire Odyssey no single action that shows such a deep and immediate understanding of human things as Helen's drugging of everyone.
  3. A German Officer in Occupied ParisErnst Jünger2026In long periods of asceticism when we tame our thoughts, we get a foretaste of the wisdom of old age, of serenity.
  4. Much Ado About NothingWilliam Shakespeare2026Adam’s sons are my brethren, 63 and truly I hold it a sin to match in my kindred.
  5. TheaterRené Girard2026
  6. PninVladimir Nabokov2026He was beloved not for any essential ability but for those unforgettable digressions of his, when he would remove his glasses to beam at the past while massaging the lenses of the present.
  7. The Luzhin DefenseVladimir Nabokov2026The doctor started coming every night and since he was really a first-rate player he derived enormous pleasure from these incessant defeats.
  8. Literature and the GodsRoberto Calasso2026Would I like to be a comet? I think so. For they have the speed of the birds; they flower into fire, and in their purity they are like children. To wish for anything greater is not within man’s reach.
  9. Bend SinisterVladimir Nabokov2026All those who are because they do not think, thus refuting Cartesianism.
  10. The Abolition of ManC. S. Lewis2026Their heads are no bigger than the ordinary: it is the atrophy of the chest beneath that makes them seem so.
  11. MaryVladimir Nabokov2026They would fire a barrage of murderous brilliance, illumining the painted wax of motionless faces, then expiring with a click—but for a long time yet there would glow, in those elaborate crystals, dying red sunsets—our human shame.
  12. ApproachesErnst Jünger2026Intoxication and crime are neighboring phenomena and sometimes difficult to separate, especially in their borderline manifestations.
  13. The Annotated EmmaJane Austen2026Hartfield will only put her out of conceit with all the other places she belongs to. She will grow just refined enough to be uncomfortable with those among whom birth and circumstances have placed her home.
  14. The New ByzantinesSean Mathews2026The one-word response of dictator Ioannis Metaxas’ government, which ruled Greece from 1936 to 1941, Oxi, or no, is still celebrated every 28 October in Greece and among the diaspora.
  15. Anna KareninaLeo Tolstoy2026He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.
  16. On the Marble CliffsErnst Jünger2026On the pointed gables, the redstarts now began their day and fed their second brood, whose hungry chirps sounded like the whetting of knives.
  17. The Annotated Sense and SensibilityJane Austen2026Edward Ferrars was not recommended to their good opinion by any peculiar graces of person or address. He was not handsome, and his manners required intimacy to make them pleasing.
  18. The Annotated Pride and PrejudiceJane Austen2026That is very true,” replied Elizabeth, “and I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.
  19. NietzscheFriedrich Nietzsche2026Culture is, above all, unity of artistic style in all the expressions of the life of a people.
  20. NostromoJoseph Conrad2026She was highly gifted in the art of human intercourse which consists in delicate shades of self-forgetfulness and in the suggestion of universal comprehension.
  21. Essays and AphorismsArthur Schopenhauer2026Money is human happiness in abstracto; consequently he who is no longer capable of happiness in concreto sets his whole heart on money.
  22. In the Presence of SchopenhauerMichel Houellebecq2026This is something he expresses, even more bluntly, in these words: ‘To say that a thing is beautiful is to express the fact that it is the object of our aesthetic contemplation.’
  23. Complete MusashiMiyamoto Musashi2026The gaze for “looking in” is intense whereas that for “looking at” is gentle. It is of utmost importance for a warrior to see distant things as if they were close and close things as if they were distant.
  24. SubmissionMichel Houellebecq2026Jesus had loved men too much, that was the problem; to let himself be crucified for their sake showed, at the very least, a lack of taste, as the old faggot would have put it.
  25. The Annotated Northanger AbbeyJane Austen2026Their joy on this meeting was very great, as well it might, since they had been contented to know nothing of each other for the last fifteen years.
  26. Bartleby, the ScrivenerHerman Melville2026I was not unemployed in my profession by the late John Jacob Astor; a name which, I admit, I love to repeat, for it hath a rounded and orbicular sound to it, and rings like unto bullion.
  27. WhateverMichel Houellebecq2026This can be expressed in a more brutal and less exact way by saying that man is a diminished adolescent.
  28. PersuasionJane Austen2026She had given him up to oblige others. It had been the effect of over-persuasion. It had been weakness and timidity.
  29. The Red and the BlackStendhal2026Father Pirard had gone to take up his parish duties. “If Julien is a slender reed, let him perish. If he has the courage, let him figure this business out, all by himself,” he thought.
  30. The Western CanonHarold Bloom2026Reviewing bad books, W. H. Auden once remarked, is bad for the character.
  31. Hadji MurádLeo Tolstoy2026Very well… A rope should be long but a speech short," said Hadji Murád.
  32. Journey to the End of the NightLouis-Ferdinand Céline2025Gustave would have done practically anything for me. He admired me in fact. He told me so. He didn’t know why. Neither did I. But he admired me. He was the only one.
  33. The OdysseyHomer2025One day Theseus tried 366 to spirit her off from Crete to Athens’ sacred heights but he got no joy from her. Artemis killed her first 368 on wave-washed Dia’s shores, accused by Dionysus.
  34. CenturiesQuintus Curtius2025Themistocles knew that the human heart instinctively seeks out the good, and was more inspired to action by the invocation of the good, than by an unhealthy emphasis on fear and ignominy.
  35. StratagemsFrontinus2025Yet there is no substitute for operational experience in the field; and when experience is combined with razor-sharp clarity of mind and organizational genius, as was the case with Frontinus, an incomparable fusion results.
  36. The Philosophy of Friedrich NietzscheH. L. Mencken2025His sister, in her biography, prints some samples of his music. Candor compels the admission that it is even worse than it sounds.

Gallery Αʹ · ΣΤΟΑThe Stoics

31 books · presided over by Zeno of Citium

  1. A Handbook for New StoicsMassimo Pigliucci2019Kross, E., et al., “Self-Talk as a Regulatory Mechanism: How You Do It Matters,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 106, no. 2 (2014): 304–24.
  2. Stoicism and EmotionMargaret Graver2021Now the chief insight of Stoic axiology could very well be expressed this way: that in a rational being, external objects never merit uncompromising evaluation but integral objects always do.
  3. The Practicing StoicWard Farnsworth2021If reason prevails, the emotions will not even get started; while if they begin in defiance of reason, they will continue in defiance of reason.
  4. StoicismBrad Inwood2020In a word, metaphysics. Plato’s most distinctive doctrine was his theory of Forms.
  5. Lives of the StoicsRyan Holiday2023How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been,” the great C. S. Lewis once observed, “how gloriously different the saints.
  6. Stoic EthicsWilliam O. Stephens2021The Stoic loves freely in the sense that she does not allow her love to enslave her happiness.
  7. Dying Every DayJames Romm2021It raises the awesome possibility that Seneca, while holding back from action, had hopes of ending up the new princeps, the Western world’s first philosopher king.
  8. The Philosophy of Cognitive-Behavioural TherapyDonald Robertson2021Horace advises us, in his 11th Ode, to “seize the day”, while time relentlessly flies away from us, and put no trust in tomorrow.
  9. How to Keep Your CoolSeneca2021As they say, the moment we turn and look behind us, death stands right there.
  10. The Therapy of DesireMartha C. Nussbaum2021For nothing is fearful in life to the person who is genuinely convinced that there is nothing fearful in not living.
  11. Secundum NaturamRon Hall2020Chrysippan modality is combined with modern modal symbols and referred to as conceptual modality. The modern modal symbols do not change any evaluation of Chrysippan modality.
  12. StoicismJohn Sellars2023In a word, metaphysics. Plato’s most distinctive doctrine was his theory of Forms.
  13. Philosophy for Life and Other Dangerous SituationsJules Evans2019Another of Major Jarrett’s Stoic padawans is Chris Brennan, a thirty-four-year-old firefighter living in Chicago, who teaches Stoic resilience in the US Fire Service.
  14. Marcus AureliusWilliam O. Stephens2020Death is therefore ubiquitous, eternally repeated, and indispensable for the very existence of living things. Marcus and the Stoics before him learned this lesson from Heraclitus.
  15. How to GiveSeneca2021In the end, I call ungrateful anyone who is grateful only through fear.
  16. The Stoic ChallengeWilliam B. Irvine2019If people think you amount to something,” he said, “distrust yourself.
  17. How to DieSeneca2021We must learn that it makes no difference when you undergo the thing that must be undergone some time or other; that it matters how well you live, not how long.
  18. Courage Under FireJames B. Stockdale2020Ernest Henley's poem Invictus: It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishment the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.
  19. The Porch and the CrossKevin Vost2020Therefore, in choosing a spouse, one should neglect wealth, physical beauty, or high birth, and seek a mate of normal appearance, capacity for physical labor, and virtuous character.
  20. The Obstacle Is the WayRyan Holiday2023Some academic once asked Demosthenes what the three most important traits of speechmaking were. His reply says it all: “Action, Action, Action!
  21. Stoic VirtuesChristoph Jedan2021A Stoic suggestion seems to have been that the appearance of mental conflict is caused by an imperceptibly rapid succession of opposed mental states of the unitary rational soul.
  22. The Role Ethics of EpictetusBrian E. Johnson2022In Epictetus’s view, such behavior requires rationality, trustworthiness, cosmopolitanism, sociability, piety, and the elimination of the passions.
  23. A New StoicismLawrence C. Becker2020if the desire to do (or be) x is a sufficient reason for doing it in one of the agent’s endeavors, then (nothing-else-considered) the agent ought to do or be x.
  24. How to Think Like a Roman EmperorDonald Robertson2022Modeling is typically followed by the “mental rehearsal” of behavior change: picturing yourself acting more like your role models or imagining yourself following their advice.
  25. Epictetus’s ’Encheiridion’Scott Aikin2023self). On the other hand, there is the fatalist version of the inaction objection, which maintains that if the Stoic view of the world as determined by Providence is right, then one’s actions can make no difference in any outcome.
  26. Hellenistic PhilosophyJohn Sellars2020Arcesilaus argued dialectically. However, he is reported to have claimed that he went even further than Socrates, by denying even that he knew he knew nothing. Just like his great Athenian role model, Arcesilaus left no written works.
  27. The Hellenistic PhilosophersA. A. Long2023Furthermore they say: that which can be used well and badly is not something good. But wealth and health can be used well and badly. Therefore wealth and health are not something good.
  28. Epitome of Stoic EthicsArius Didymus2024They say that what sets impulse moving is nothing other than a spontaneously impulsive impression of what is appropriate, while in genus impulse is a motion of the soul toward something.
  29. A Guide to StoicismSt. George Stock2023
  30. The Meaning of StoicismLudwig Edelstein2023Nature meant them for murderers, but their habits turned them into prostitutes.
  31. Being BetterKai Whiting2023

Gallery Βʹ · ΕΛΛΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΡΩΜΗGreece and Rome

23 books · presided over by Thucydides

  1. Cicero (Loeb)Cicero2025Fools however are tormented by the recollection of misfortunes; wise men rejoice in keeping fresh the thankful recollection of their past blessings.
  2. RubiconTom Holland2021And yet Alesia had been only a single battle. In all, the conquest of Gaul had cost a million dead, a million more enslaved, eight hundred cities taken by storm—or so the ancients claimed.
  3. AugustusJochen Bleicken2025Caesar had shown them extraordinary favour since his early political life, particularly when he was aedile and held lavish games, and he continued to do so during his period of sole rule.
  4. World of RomeMichael Grant2022The government made great politico-religious play with a comet that flashed across the sky after Caesar’s murder, and the public response to such phenomena was hysterical.
  5. Republics Ancient and Modern, Volume IPaul A. Rahe2022To comprehend fully what Plato had in mind, one must recognize that the pόlıs was itself a memorial to those who had shaped it.
  6. The Ancient CityNuma Denis Fustel de Coulanges2022Thus religion dwelt not in temples, but in the house; each house had its gods, each god protected one family only, and was a god only in one house.
  7. The Rise and Fall of Classical GreeceJosiah Ober2021By Alexander’s day, the total population of Hellas—that is, the residents of small states that were substantially Greek in language and culture—was in excess of 8 million people.
  8. Plutarch’s Lives, Volume IPlutarch2024Being afterwards asked whether he had composed the best possible laws for the Athenians, he answered, "The best that they would endure.
  9. Plato of AthensRobin Waterfield2025Every generation of readers in antiquity and the Middle Ages felt that Plato’s work was worth preserving.
  10. CenturiesQuintus Curtius2025Themistocles knew that the human heart instinctively seeks out the good, and was more inspired to action by the invocation of the good, than by an unhealthy emphasis on fear and ignominy.
  11. FragmentsHeraclitus2025Pythagoras may well have been the deepest in his learning of all men. And still he claimed to recollect details of former lives, being in one a cucumber and one time a sardine.
  12. The Rise of the GreeksMichael Grant2023But any collaboration with men from another state must have gone against the grain, for the very essence of relations between the various Greek communities was conflict.
  13. ApologyPlato2023Speak up, friend, and tell us who their improver is. The laws. But that, my good sir, is not my meaning. I want to know who the person is, who, in the first place, knows the laws.
  14. The Shape of Ancient ThoughtThomas McEvilley2020If the Greek miracle were to remain a miracle, its proponents must maintain that it happened by a kind of parthenogenesis, not by a fertilization from outside.
  15. Rome’s Last CitizenRob Goodman2023Cato was well known for the habit of staying in his cups until dawn. For the Romans, drink was no vice. But as a public Stoic, any indulgence naturally opened Cato to charges of hypocrisy.
  16. The Family in Greek HistoryCynthia B. Patterson2022The second component of the paradigm is the historical defeat of the "gentile" family by either patriarchy or the territorial state or individualisnm-or some combination of the three.
  17. The Education of CyrusXenophon2025He did not run from being defeated into the refuge of not doing that in which he had been defeated; rather, he immersed himself in trying to do better the next time.
  18. The Logos of HeraclitusEva Brann2023Even in antiquity Heraclitus was called “the Obscure, the Dark” (ho skoteinos).
  19. Uncommon WrathJosiah Osgood2023Cato had no interest in charming citizens with sleek grooming and smiles. Riding a wave of popularity to become a near god, as Pompey had, was a revolting thought for him.
  20. CaesarAdrian Goldsworthy2021Caesar, who stressed that he never neglected anyone who had aided him, may have felt that this was more important than the original arrest.
  21. StratagemsFrontinus2025Yet there is no substitute for operational experience in the field; and when experience is combined with razor-sharp clarity of mind and organizational genius, as was the case with Frontinus, an incomparable fusion results.
  22. LysisPlato2023Indeed one might say that, in one aspect of the dialogue, the mere tone of Socrates towards the boys is itself a lesson in friendship.
  23. TheaetetusPlato2021And does not my art show that you have brought forth wind, and that the offspring of your brain are not worth bringing up?

Gallery Γʹ · ΜΥΘΟΙMyths and the Gods

21 books · presided over by Hesiod

  1. The Celestial HunterRoberto Calasso2021There were two glorious moments in the Victorian age: Darwin linked human beings to primates; Beatrix Potter distributed human behavior among a certain number of small domestic and rural animals.
  2. The Marriage of Cadmus and HarmonyRoberto Calasso2022Simulation meant gliding down from high above, commanding everything with one’s eye, without ever being commanded by another eye even higher up. Palamedes was that other eye.
  3. Sacrifice ImaginedDouglas Hedley2022As we have argued, the Divine goodness requires Divine self-sacrifice. The historical passion of Jesus Christ is the sacrament or representation of this primordial sacrifice.
  4. I See Satan Fall Like LightningRené Girard2021It is well documented, for example, that the ancient Greeks practiced a ritual requiring that one or more persons be selected, set aside for a period, beaten, and then murdered.
  5. The Book of All BooksRoberto Calasso2021At once the young man follows her “like an ox led to the sacrifice.” Thus admonished the book of Proverbs.
  6. Myths of the Greeks and RomansMichael Grant2025Heroism leads to misery and death, honour to slaughter: the poet knows much about human suffering.
  7. Sexual PersonaeCamille Paglia2024I see the mother as an overwhelming force who condemns men to lifelong sexual anxiety, from which they escape through rationalism and physical achievement.
  8. The Unnamable PresentRoberto Calasso2021It is essential that advertising is repeated, in the same way as ritual acts. Repetition assures constancy of meaning. And this is the very task that society has delegated to advertising.
  9. Literature and the GodsRoberto Calasso2026Would I like to be a comet? I think so. For they have the speed of the birds; they flower into fire, and in their purity they are like children. To wish for anything greater is not within man’s reach.
  10. Politics and ApocalypseRobert Hamerton-Kelly2020Hobbes, the first truly modern philosopher, boasted of how he deserted and ran away from fighting in a religious war; a cowardly life had become preferable to a heroic but meaningless death.
  11. The Bow and the LyreSeth Benardete2026There is perhaps in the entire Odyssey no single action that shows such a deep and immediate understanding of human things as Helen's drugging of everyone.
  12. The Ruin of KaschRoberto Calasso2021The number is not known: many were thrown into the Seine. From that time, the history books talk about the “Champ de Mars Massacre.
  13. The OdysseyHomer2025One day Theseus tried 366 to spirit her off from Crete to Athens’ sacred heights but he got no joy from her. Artemis killed her first 368 on wave-washed Dia’s shores, accused by Dionysus.
  14. Gods and RobotsAdrienne Mayor2022
  15. TheaterRené Girard2026
  16. Initiation Into the Mysteries of the Ancient WorldJan N. Bremmer2021Some participants must have confused purification with having a nice swim, as in 339 BC a prospective initiate was eaten by a shark.
  17. The Greek MythsRobert Graves2021But drops of blood flowing from the wound fell upon Mother Earth, and she bore the Three Erinnyes, furies who avenge crimes of parricide and perjury—by name Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megaera.
  18. The Tablet of DestiniesRoberto Calasso2022But wasn’t the story rather different?” he said. “With the Anunnaki certain things can happen more than once,” Utnapishtim told him, and went on:
  19. WantingLuke Burgis2023The simplest definition of love is wanting what’s good for another. Italians have a way of saying “I love you” that is particularly instructive: Ti voglio bene, they say. It means “I want your good”—I want what’s best for you.
  20. The Gods of the GreeksKároly Kerényi2025
  21. The Theogony of HesiodHesiod2024there princes wise in heart, because when the people are being misguided in their assembly, they set right the matter again with ease, persuading them with gentle words. And when he passes through a gathering, they greet

Gallery Δʹ · ΦΙΛΟΣΟΦΙΑThe Philosophers

43 books · presided over by Plato

  1. Selective Breeding and the Birth of PhilosophyCostin Alamariu2024Indeed, it has been speculated that the initial quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon is a quarrel between nature and convention in embryo, so to speak.
  2. The Dawn of DayFriedrich Nietzsche2025The Friend whom we want no Longer. —That friend whose hopes we cannot satisfy we should prefer to have as an enemy.
  3. The Philosophy of Friedrich NietzscheH. L. Mencken2025His sister, in her biography, prints some samples of his music. Candor compels the admission that it is even worse than it sounds.
  4. The World Philosophy MadeScott Soames2021Pursuing those goals wisely requires cultivating virtues, like self-control, generosity, ambition, and courage.
  5. Doing PhilosophyTimothy Williamson2020However, extensional semantics ran into a roadblock with modal words, such as ‘can’ and ‘must’, or ‘possibly’ and ‘necessarily’. Compositional semantics should apply to them.
  6. Constructing the WorldDavid J. Chalmers2020These skeptical hypotheses are removed by the insulated idealization discussed in the fifth excursus, however, so we can set them to one side.
  7. Modern PhilosophyRoger Scruton2023Animals are humourless – no hyena has ever laughed – and unmusical – no bird has ever sung.
  8. Lost in ThoughtZena Hitz2021Past the asceticism of discipline for the sake of excellence is the discipline of going eyeball to eyeball with reality, letting our fantasies about ourselves die a quiet death.
  9. Don’t Forget to LivePierre Hadot2023One can observe that the imaginary movement of elevation on high is inspired by the desire to plunge into the totality, and even beyond the totality, into the infinite.
  10. Quantum Mechanics and ExperienceDavid Z. Albert2020Now, it happens that this prescription implies that the momentum and the position of a particle are incompatible observables.
  11. Essays and AphorismsArthur Schopenhauer2026Money is human happiness in abstracto; consequently he who is no longer capable of happiness in concreto sets his whole heart on money.
  12. Why Honor MattersTamler Sommers2019As Nils Christie puts it, “Conflicts might kill, but too little of them might paralyze.
  13. Philosophy of PhysicsTim Maudlin2020A complex function is square integrable if this yields a finite number.
  14. Basic Writings of NietzscheFriedrich Nietzsche2024There is no work of Nietzsche’s that does not say to us, like Rilke’s “Archaic Torso of Apollo”: “You must change your life.
  15. The Abolition of ManC. S. Lewis2026Their heads are no bigger than the ordinary: it is the atrophy of the chest beneath that makes them seem so.
  16. NietzscheFriedrich Nietzsche2026Culture is, above all, unity of artistic style in all the expressions of the life of a people.
  17. Existentialism From Dostoevsky to SartreWalter Kaufmann2024What Heidegger proposes to put in the place of representational thinking he calls das andenkende Denken, a thinking that recalls. This translation has his own enthusiastic approval.
  18. The Gay ScienceFriedrich Nietzsche2025The poison of which weaker natures perish strengthens the strong —nor do they call it poison.
  19. What We Owe the FutureWilliam MacAskill2022Sonnet 18 was written in the 1590s but echoes a tradition that goes back much further.
  20. Sapien EthicsMark F. Godwin2021We have answered the main questions: Who are we? Why are we here? And now we will answer the final question presented at the beginning of this little book: How can we live better?
  21. In the Presence of SchopenhauerMichel Houellebecq2026This is something he expresses, even more bluntly, in these words: ‘To say that a thing is beautiful is to express the fact that it is the object of our aesthetic contemplation.’
  22. The Consolation of PhilosophyBoethius2025If, then, thou art master of thyself, thou wilt possess that which thou wilt never be willing to lose, and which Fortune cannot take from thee.
  23. How to Live a Good LifeMassimo Pigliucci2023Van Norden, Bryan W. Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2011.
  24. Is Equality an Absolute Good?Eva Brann2025Inordinate, gross inequality is probably a political, certainly a social, evil. But we are better entitled to affirm that if we have thought out just why such inequality is wrong.
  25. Knowledge, Reality, and ValueMichael Huemer2021In World 1, everyone has 1 unit of good in their life, so their lives are just barely worth living. In World 2, the same people exist, but they all have 100 units of good, making their lives wonderful. Which world is better?
  26. The Good Life MethodMeghan Sullivan2022Later thinkers like Saint Thomas Aquinas would insist that when we contemplate, we’re really drawn not just into our own thoughts but into perceptions of God.
  27. Xanthippic DialoguesRoger Scruton2023XANTHIPPE: This dialogue lacks opposition; you should put a woman in it.
  28. Reality+David J. Chalmers2022As I understand it, virtual realism is the thesis that virtual reality is genuine reality, with emphasis especially on the view that virtual objects are real and not an illusion.
  29. Hegel’s Phenomenology of SpiritStephen Houlgate2022The Phenomenology is meant to show how the experience of consciousness takes it from the standpoint of sense-certainty to that of absolute knowing.
  30. How to Count Animals, More or LessShelly Kagan2020When I think about this issue, I find myself strongly inclined to think that agency does not, in fact, presuppose sentience.
  31. The Philosophy of “As If”Hans Vaihinger2021Naturally the human mind is tormented by this insoluble contradiction between the world of motion and the world of consciousness, and this torment can eventually become very oppressive.
  32. The Silence of AnimalsJohn Gray2024Lacking a self-image of the sort humans cherish, other animals are content to be what they are. For human beings the struggle for survival is a struggle against themselves.
  33. After VirtueAlasdair MacIntyre2021The intervention of a god in Greek tragedy—or at the very least an appeal to a god to intervene—often signals the disclosure of an incoherence in moral standards and vocabulary.
  34. Quantum Non-Locality and RelativityTim Maudlin2020Many physicists and philosophers would agree that Relativity prohibits something from going faster than light but disagree over just what that something is.
  35. You Must Change Your LifePeter Sloterdijk2026Wherever one encounters members of the human race, they always show the traits of a being that is condemned to surrealistic effort. Whoever goes in search of humans will find acrobats.
  36. Pursuits of WisdomJohn M. Cooper2021that for the whole tradition of Greek ethical philosophy the capacity for reasoning does have an inherent power of moving us to action. It
  37. Six Myths About the Good LifeJoel J. Kupperman2020
  38. In Emergency, Break GlassNate Anderson2023
  39. The Fragility of GoodnessMartha C. Nussbaum2023
  40. Begin HereJacques Barzun2023The yearning to include expresses itself by eagerness to exclude.
  41. Beyond Good and EvilFriedrich Nietzsche2024
  42. The PathMichael Puett2023
  43. Tragedy and PhilosophyWalter Kaufmann2023

Gallery Εʹ · ΠΙΣΤΙΣFaith and Practice

42 books · presided over by Augustine

  1. Why I Am Not a BuddhistEvan Thompson2020See Jonardon Ganeri, The Self: Naturalism, Consciousness, and the First-Person Stance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).
  2. The Doctrine of AwakeningJulius Evola2025Thought does not like being watched, does not like being seen.
  3. The Mind IlluminatedJohn Yates2019The general principle: conscious intentions, repeatedly acted upon, eventually give rise to automatic actions that no longer require conscious intention.
  4. The Vision of IslamSachiko Murata2022The Prophet’s move to Medina, called al-hijra (the emigration), was the grand turning point of his career. From then on, with some minor setbacks, the religion flourished.
  5. The Four LovesC. S. Lewis2020Those who leave their manners behind them when they come home from the dance or the sherry party have no real courtesy even there. They were merely aping those who had.
  6. A Philosopher Looks at the Religious LifeZena Hitz2023I had thought that the events of daily life shaped my anxieties, but it turned out the other way around: My anxieties drove the events of my life.
  7. Engaging BuddhismJay L. Garfield2020Buddhist ethics, we have seen, is not a method for resolving moral dilemmas or for choosing action, but rather an approach to our comportment toward the world.
  8. The Face of GodRoger Scruton2022See the illuminating account by Max Scheler, ‘The Meaning of Suffering’, in Max Scheler, On Feeling, Knowing and Valuing, trans.
  9. The Soul of the WorldRoger Scruton2022The search for the foundation of the world is the search for the I that looks down on us from a point outside time.
  10. Saving GodMark Johnston2021Human beings render the old gods irrelevant by coming to be better than they are; they shame the old gods by being better to the gods than the gods have been to them.
  11. The Unfettered MindTakuan Soho2025Obtaining the state of Buddhahood is like planting pear trees and then watching them grow.
  12. The Four AgreementsDon Miguel Ruiz2019If you don’t understand, ask. Have the courage to ask questions until you are clear as you can be, and even then do not assume you know all there is to know about a given situation.
  13. Seven Types of AtheismJohn Gray2024The primitive character of the new atheism shows itself in the notion that religions are erroneous hypotheses. The Genesis story is not an early theory of the origin of species.
  14. OrthodoxyG. K. Chesterton2022Every act of will is an act of self-limitation. To desire action is to desire limitation. In that sense every act is an act of self-sacrifice. When you choose anything, you reject everything else.
  15. The Book of Five RingsMiyamoto Musashi2025Generally speaking, it is essential to make your ordinary bearing the bearing you use in martial arts, and make the bearing you use in martial arts your ordinary bearing. This should be given careful consideration.
  16. Islam ExplainedAhmad Rashid Salim2022According to the Qur’an, the prophets who are mentioned by name are not all of the prophets who were sent by God. That number is quite considerable—the common number given is 124,000.
  17. The Science of EnlightenmentShinzen Young2024Another book is called the Cloud of Unknowing, by an anonymous fourteenth-century English author, which gives a very beautiful poetic description of the meditative process.
  18. The Religious Philosophy of Roger ScrutonJames Bryson, ed.2022Erich Heller, The Disinherited Mind (New York: Meridian Books, 1959), p. 171.
  19. Monotheism and the Rise of ScienceJ. L. Schellenberg2020
  20. Remember Your DeathTheresa Aletheia Noble2020God reminds Adam and Eve of their mortality: “You are dust, / and to dust you shall return” (Gen 3:19).
  21. The Religion of the SamuraiKaiten Nukariya2025Bacon truly said," says Eucken, 183 "that to rule nature man must first serve her. He forgot to add that, as her ruler, he is still destined to go on serving her.
  22. Secrets of Divine LoveA. Helwa2022This is why the follower of the Prophet Muhammad , Abu Bakr, said, “Our inability to understand God is our understanding of God.
  23. The GospelsSarah Ruden2023How hard it’s going to be for those with property to enter god’s kingdom!
  24. The Road to MeccaMuhammad Asad2023This went on for about a month. At the end of the month an unforeseen opportunity offered itself to me.
  25. ContemplationMalik Badri2022In the impressive volume, The Self and Its Brain, that Eccles wrote with the renowned philosopher Karl Popper, the author comes very close to agreeing with the religious belief about the immortality of the soul.
  26. Timeless Seeds of AdviceB. B. Abdulla2022O friend, the cloth from which your burial shroud will be cut may have already reached the market and yet you remain unaware.
  27. How to PrayMustafa Umar2022To find out the direction, go to www.qiblalocator.com and type in your zip code.
  28. War, Progress, and the End of HistoryVladimir Solovyov2022Quem Deus vult perdere, prius dementat. LADY – What does that mean? POLITICIAN – It means: Whom God would destroy, He first drives mad.
  29. Complete MusashiMiyamoto Musashi2026The gaze for “looking in” is intense whereas that for “looking at” is gentle. It is of utmost importance for a warrior to see distant things as if they were close and close things as if they were distant.
  30. PenséesBlaise Pascal2024We do not care about our reputation in towns where we are only passing through. But when we have to stay some time we do care. How much time does it take? A time proportionate to our vain and paltry existence.
  31. The Screwtape LettersC. S. Lewis2022in later years was fond of talking about ‘that inarticulate sense for actuality which is our ultimate safeguard against the aberrations of mere logic’. He is now safe in Our Father’s house.
  32. Altered TraitsDaniel Goleman 2019the Visuddhimagga. This fifth-century text, which means Path to Purification in Pali (the language of Buddhism’s earliest canon), was the ancient source for those mimeographed manuals Dan had pored over in Bodh Gaya.
  33. The Little Book of BeingDiana Winston2021Everything just seems to be happening on its own. • You feel a sense of contentment not connected to external conditions. • You are simply being—without agenda—and this beingness creates a feeling of timelessness and ease.
  34. Imagine No ReligionCarlin A. Barton2022[I]t can be somewhat anachronistic and misleading to talk about “religion” in the Roman world, although, for the sake of convenience, I will continue to do so. —JAMES RIVES
  35. The ProphetKahlil Gibran2020See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver, and an instrument of giving. For in truth it is life that gives unto life—while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.
  36. The Qur’anTarif Khalidi2022And God knows full well who the wicked are. You will find them, of all mankind, those most attached to life.
  37. A History of GodKaren Armstrong2022Rudolf Otto, the German historian of religion who published his important book The Idea of the Holy in 1917, believed that this sense of the “numinous” was basic to religion.
  38. It Keeps Me SeekingAndrew Briggs2022For the whole world gestures onwards, beyond itself. It gestures towards a love that struggles to be born, a love that it does not show, but could. It gestures towards a love that we do not show, but might.
  39. The Venture of Islam, Volume 1Marshall G. S. Hodgson2022
  40. ConfessionsAugustine2021
  41. The Everlasting ManG. K. Chesterton2022
  42. Waking, Dreaming, BeingEvan Thompson2019

Gallery Ϛʹ · ΨΥΧΗThe Mind

27 books · presided over by Aristotle

  1. Good Reasons for Bad FeelingsRandolph M. Nesse2023Life without pain or anxiety seems attractive, but it would often be short.
  2. The WEIRDest People in the WorldJoseph Henrich2023Divine monitoring: Intergroup competition should favor gods who are better at monitoring people’s adherence to divine demands and prohibitions.
  3. Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your LifeSteven C. Hayes2019Values and Failing Values entail responsibility: that is, acknowledging that you always have the ability to respond.
  4. Beyond Human NatureJesse J. Prinz2023The faces men like turn out to be, well, just average. Morph together the photos of fifty random women, and the result will look like the most stunning supermodel you have ever seen.
  5. Darwin’s Unfinished SymphonyKevin N. Laland2019Young chimpanzees remain with their mothers until the age of around seven, probably because this allows them time to acquire complex foraging and social skills.
  6. Beyond the IndividualWill Johncock2023Our decision-making rationalizations lean upon this element of ourselves that is not reducible to any of us individually, and even circumvents our own adverse emotional impulses.
  7. Cognitive GadgetsCecilia Heyes2025The answer was an unambiguous “no” for all actions apart from tongue protrusion.
  8. How Emotions Are MadeLisa Feldman Barrett2022Despite tremendous time and investment, research has not revealed a consistent bodily fingerprint for even a single emotion.
  9. The Character GapChristian B. Miller2020So I doubt we have much of an idea about the effectiveness of these religious practices using the best psychological measurement tools. We do have something, though.
  10. The Elephant in the BrainKevin Simler2018One out of every $6 spent in the United States goes toward paying for doctors’ visits, diagnostic tests, hospital stays, surgeries, and prescription drugs (see Box 15).
  11. Mind Is FlatNick Chater2022And there is a parallel danger for introspection: ‘Ask yourself what you are thinking, and you cease to think it.’
  12. Never EnoughJudith Grisel2019A victim of virtually any disease usually elicits pity; addicts mostly evoke revulsion. What is it about the irrational behavior of an addict that makes everyone want to turn away?
  13. The Will to MeaningViktor E. Frankl2023Logotherapy’s concept of man is based on three pillars, the freedom of will, the will to meaning, and the meaning of life.
  14. FlowMihaly Csikszentmihalyi2019He who desires but acts not,” wrote Blake with his accustomed vigor, “breeds pestilence.
  15. Other MindsPeter Godfrey-Smith2020These animals might first have only been consumed by others after they had died. But this soon changed. Scavenging became predation.
  16. Sadly, PornEdward Teach2025Oedipus had the good sense to gouge out his own eyes, Freud gouged out everyone else's.
  17. The Upside of StressKelly McGonigal2019When you feel your body responding to stress, ask yourself which part of the stress response you need most. Do you need to fight, escape, engage, connect, find meaning, or grow?
  18. A Liberated MindSteven C. Hayes2023In a related study, we showed that the level of psychological flexibility overweight people exhibit correlates directly with their ability to lose weight, engage in exercise, and stop binging.
  19. The Selfish GeneRichard Dawkins2023The evolution of the capacity to simulate seems to have culminated in subjective consciousness. Why this should have happened is, to me, the most profound mystery facing modern biology.
  20. The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral MindJulian Jaynes2021The Trojan War was directed by hallucinations. And the soldiers who were so directed were not at all like us. They were noble automatons who knew not what they did.
  21. Becoming HumanMichael Tomasello2019The first step (first box) is infants’ emotion sharing in protoconversations at around two months of age, which evolved as a new way for infants to affiliate and bond with the many adults serving as their caregivers.
  22. Internal Family Systems Skills Training ManualFrank Anderson2019The simplicity of the IFS credo “all parts are welcome” can belie the courage and Self-energy required to welcome all parts.
  23. The Book of WhyJudea Pearl2018Confounding bias occurs when a variable influences both who is selected for the treatment and the outcome of the experiment.
  24. The Secret of Our SuccessJoseph Henrich2019By “culture” I mean the large body of practices, techniques, heuristics, tools, motivations, values, and beliefs that we all acquire while growing up, mostly by learning from other people.
  25. BehaveRobert M. Sapolsky2019In other words, when you think categorically, you have trouble seeing how similar or different two things are. If you pay lots of attention to where boundaries are, you pay less attention to complete pictures.
  26. The Untamed TongueThomas Szasz2023The safest sin: envy, which is easily disguised as enthusiasm for equality.
  27. The Origins of YouJay Belsky2021

Gallery Ζʹ · ΠΟΛΙΣThe City

49 books · presided over by Solon

  1. Why We’re PolarizedEzra Klein2020So I also want to discuss a few ways we can change our relationship to politics that can be both healthier for us and our country: identity mindfulness and rediscovering a politics of place.
  2. How the World Really WorksVaclav Smil2022England has an exceptionally early start: all the coalfields that make the UK the world’s leading 19th-century economy are already producing coal before 1640.
  3. The End of History and the Last ManFrancis Fukuyama2022The second way in which economic development encourages liberal democracy is because it has a tremendous leveling effect through its need for universal education.
  4. The PrecipiceToby Ord2021Estimates of the impact energy, the crater dimensions and ejecta are from Collins, Melosh & Marcus (2005). Other details from Schulte et al. (2010).
  5. The Inevitability of TragedyBarry Gewen2023From 1950 to 1973, the percentage of the population registered to vote went from 13. percent to 44 percent, and in 1970 the percentage of eligible voters who were registered was 82. percent.
  6. Why America Is Not a New RomeVaclav Smil2021Marcus Tullius Cicero knew that state of mind well: Utinam tam facile vera invenire possem quam falsa convincere (I only wish I could discover the truth as easily as I can uncover falsehood).
  7. The Third AwokeningEric Kaufmann2025Three main crunch points that an expanding cultural socialism collides with are excellence, freedom, and community.
  8. The MuqaddimahIbn Khaldûn2022Only knowledge of the nature of civilization makes critical investigation of them possible.
  9. How to Save the WestSpencer Klavan2023The reality crisis presents us with an age-old question: is truth independent of authority, including the authority of “experts” and of majority opinion?
  10. Lean OutMarissa Orr2020Lean out doesn’t mean quit your job or check out mentally. It means leaning out of anyone else’s story of who you should be and what a successful career looks like.
  11. Selfish Reasons to Have More KidsBryan Caplan2024Benefit to the child is almost the only socially acceptable justification for discipline. As a result, parents use a lot less discipline than they would if they counted their own interests.
  12. The PrinceNiccolò Machiavelli2025For, besides what has been said, people are fickle by nature: it is easy to convince them of something, but difficult to hold them in that conviction.
  13. Liberalism and Its DiscontentsFrancis Fukuyama2022The third major threat to freedom of speech arises, paradoxically, from the sheer volume of speech that the internet has made possible.
  14. Against the GrainJames C. Scott2019One line of theorizing, favored for a time among students of social evolution, depicted agriculture as a crucial civilizational leap because it was a “delayed-return” activity.
  15. Big BusinessTyler Cowen2020He didn’t have any defense as to why he called the book Bad Pharma; that was likely because his Bad Publishing Company wanted to sell more copies of it and thus needed a catchy title.
  16. Wealth and PowerOrville Schell2022The decisive naval engagement of the Sino-Japanese War took place on September 17, 1894, at the point where the Yalu River flows into the Yellow Sea.
  17. Bad TherapyAbigail Shrier2024Harvard Medical School psychiatry professor Dr. Harrison Pope, in a telephone interview, called the ACE study of childhood trauma “a classic example of a methodologically flawed study.
  18. The Origins of WokeRichard Hanania2024Peter Wood, in Diversity: The Invention of a Concept, searches major newspapers and court decisions before Bakke and finds almost no mention of the benefits of diversity in higher education.
  19. Feminism Against ProgressMary Harrington2024The third plank in a reactionary feminist programme is the post-romantic case for marriage, as against the industrial-era vision of that institution as a vector for self-fulfilment.
  20. Rules for RadicalsSaul Alinsky2019Imagination. Imagination is the inevitable partner of irreverence and curiosity. How can one be curious without being imaginative?
  21. Medical NemesisIvan Illich2022For Descartes pain became a signal with which the body reacts in self-defense to protect its mechanical integrity.
  22. When Kids Say They’re TransSasha Ayad2025Equally, teenage boys might become obsessed with their body hair and spend hours removing all trace of it.
  23. A History of Chile, 1808–2002Simon Collier2022Here in fact we come to one of the secrets of nineteenth-century Chilean stability: electoral "intervention," the wholesale fixing of elections by the executive.
  24. China in Ten WordsYu Hua2022Reflecting on the past in the light of the present, I have a sense that in today’s China we no longer have a leader—all we have is a leadership.
  25. Napoleon Never SleptRandall Collins2025You think you’re going to be exhausted because you didn’t get enough sleep before the race. It’s really the other way around. The reason you can’t sleep is because you’re so full of energy. Just go with it.
  26. The Dictator’s HandbookBruce Bueno de Mesquita2020Why do Republicans wish the top tax rate were lower, and have so many problems with the idea of national health care? Rule 5: Don’t rob your supporters to give to your opposition.
  27. Why Liberalism FailedPatrick J. Deneen2022We can see this today especially in four distinct but connected areas of our common life: politics and government, economics, education, and science and technology.
  28. The Machinery of FreedomDavid D. Friedman2018If you do not believe that the ICC and the CAB are on the side of the industries they regulate, figure out why they set minimum as well as maximum fares.
  29. Future SuperhumanElise Bohan2024I could talk about self-proclaimed cyborgs, like the colour-blind artist Neil Harbisson who had an antenna implanted in his skull, enabling him to perceive colour through soundwaves.
  30. The MachiavelliansJames Burnham2022A tragic destiny is that of men! Aspiring ever to pursue and achieve what they think is the good, they ever find pretexts for slaughtering and persecuting each other.
  31. The New ByzantinesSean Mathews2026The one-word response of dictator Ioannis Metaxas’ government, which ruled Greece from 1936 to 1941, Oxi, or no, is still celebrated every 28 October in Greece and among the diaspora.
  32. Bitter HarvestIan Smith2025Rhodesia’s white tribe had never accounted for more than 6 per cent of the population (a peak attained in 1951) and never exceeded some 260, in absolute numbers, compared to 6m blacks.
  33. Principles for Dealing With the Changing World OrderRay Dalio2022The decline phase typically comes from internal economic weakness together with internal fighting, or from costly external fighting, or both.
  34. Network PropagandaYochai Benkler2020We will make the argument throughout this book that the behavior of the right-wing media ecosystem represents a radicalization of roughly a third of the American media system.
  35. The Struggle ContinuesDavid Coltart2018The declaration itself and the ceremony were modelled on the American declaration but omitted two key phrases, that “all men are created equal” and the “consent of the governed”.
  36. The American Political TraditionRichard Hofstadter2023American traditions also show a strong bias in favor of equalitarian democracy, but it has been a democracy in cupidity rather than a democracy of fraternity.
  37. 21 Lessons for the 21st CenturyYuval Noah Harari2019The heated argument about the true essence of Islam is simply pointless. Islam has no fixed DNA. Islam is whatever Muslims make of it.
  38. On Liberty and the Subjection of WomenJohn Stuart Mill2024Mill had been distressed as a boy by the unkindness with which James Mill had treated his mother, as he recorded in draft passages of the Autobiography that he deleted before his death.
  39. Trust Me, I’m LyingRyan Holiday2019This is a critical difference. Media was once about protecting a name; on the web it is about building one.
  40. The Tragedy of LiberationFrank Dikötter2022Mao saw in the Amethyst the perfect symbol of old China and ordered his troops to ‘brook no foreign interference’. The attack on the Royal Navy made headlines around the world. Mao was delighted.
  41. Capitalist RealismMark Fisher2022This malaise, the feeling that there is nothing new, is itself nothing new of course.
  42. Democracy in AmericaAlexis de Tocqueville2021The people reign over the American political world as does God over the universe. They are the cause and the end of all things; everything comes out of them and everything is absorbed into them.
  43. Economics in the Age of COVID-19Joshua Gans2020It is also worth noting that, in many respects, COVID-19 was a somewhat “lucky” pandemic. The virus, unlike measles, did not stay alive in the air. It did not lead to contaminated food. It appeared to be relatively genetically stable.
  44. The Story of ChinaMichael Wood2023Later written histories say the first king of the first dynasty was the son of Yu, whose name was Qi (‘Revelation’), and the date, it is generally thought, roughly corresponds to 1900 BCE in the modern calendar.
  45. What to Expect When You’re ExpectingHeidi Murkoff2024
  46. Energy and CivilizationVaclav Smil2022We have been generating electricity by burning fossil fuels, as well by harnessing the kinetic energy of water, since 1882, and by fissioning a uranium isotope since 1956.
  47. Forbidden NationJonathan Manthorpe2023Within five years Portugal’s supremacy in Asia vanished as Dutch and English traders, with van Linschoten’s handbook as their guide, swarmed all over the East.
  48. The Decadent SocietyRoss Douthat2021Decadence, deployed usefully, refers to economic stagnation, institutional decay, and cultural and intellectual exhaustion at a high level of material prosperity and technological development.
  49. From Dawn to DecadenceJacques Barzun2023

Gallery Ηʹ · ΕΡΓΑΣΤΗΡΙΟΝThe Workshop

40 books · presided over by Daedalus

  1. An Elegant PuzzleWill Larson2020Schedule and enjoy your coffees and chats, and remember that even people you aren’t able to work with now are still folks you’re likely to work with next year or next job.
  2. The Great CEO WithinMatt Mochary2020Here is a template for providing good feedback, adapted from the book Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg.
  3. Thinking in SystemsDonella H. Meadows2020THE WAY OUT Keep performance standards absolute. Even better, let standards be enhanced by the best actual performances instead of being discouraged by the worst. Use the same structure to set up a drift toward high performance!
  4. What You Do Is Who You AreBen Horowitz2020The final vital component of the decision-making process is “Do you favor speed or accuracy and by how much?” The answer depends on the nature and size of your business.
  5. PowerJeffrey Pfeffer2020If you move quickly, you can often catch your opponents off guard and secure victory before they even know what is happening.
  6. Atomic HabitsJames Clear2023Variable rewards or not, no habit will stay interesting forever. At some point, everyone faces the same challenge on the journey of self-improvement: you have to fall in love with boredom.
  7. AccelerateNicole Forsgren2020In all cases, we reported Pearson correlations, which is the correlation type most often used in business contexts today.
  8. Web Scalability for Startup EngineersArtur Ejsmont2020Adding more I/O capacity by adding more hard drives in Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) arrays.
  9. InfluenceRobert B. Cialdini2020Whenever we confront the scarcity pressures surrounding some item, we must also confront the question of what it is we want from the item.
  10. Managing With PowerJeffrey Pfeffer2020Nixon commented, “The leader necessarily deals to a large extent in symbols, in images, and in the sort of galvanizing idea that becomes a force of history.
  11. The Elements of EloquenceMark Forsyth2019They are not long, the days of wine and roses, Out of a misty dream Our path emerges for a while, then closes Within a dream.
  12. 12 Rules for LifeJordan B. Peterson2023Memory is not a description of the objective past. Memory is a tool. Memory is the past’s guide to the future.
  13. The ContrarianMax Chafkin2021From the outside—to Cowen’s audience, for instance, or to the hosts of CBS This Morning—he was an up-and-coming thought leader whose controversial past was behind him.
  14. AntifragileNassim Nicholas Taleb2024This is what Seneca elected to do: he initially had a very active, adventurous life, followed by a philosophical withdrawal to write and meditate, rather than a “middle” combination of both.
  15. The Inner Game of TennisW. Timothy Gallwey2019Primarily because he hasn’t learned how to interfere with his own natural, untaught learning process. The Inner Game way of learning is a return toward this childlike way.
  16. High Output ManagementAndrew S. Grove2018There are three L’s to keep in mind when delivering a review: Level, listen, and leave yourself out.
  17. TalentTyler Cowen2023If you joined and then in three to six months you were no longer here, why would that be?
  18. How to Get AheadZak Slayback2021Connect directly with established industry experts and leaders by sending them your analyses as you publish them. Cite them when you can to give them a reason to engage.
  19. Skin in the GameNassim Nicholas Taleb2022Macroeconomics, for instance, can be nonsense since it is easier to macrobull***t than microbull***t—nobody can tell if a theory really works.
  20. The Dream MachineM. Mitchell Waldrop2020Third, Atanasoff came up with a serial, step-by-step calculation scheme that would allow his computer to deal with larger numbers than it could have done otherwise.
  21. Direct TruthKapil Gupta2019A: Man is lazy and undisciplined for the things that do not move him. He is motivated and voracious for the things that inspire him.
  22. The Motivation HackerNick Winter2019If you have a Valueless task you need to do, then make a game out of it so that it challenges you.
  23. Paper Belt on FireMichael Gibson2023Of Stoicism, Stockdale concluded: “It’s a formula for maintaining self-respect and dignity in defiance of those who break your spirit for their own ends.
  24. Zero to OnePeter Thiel2022On the inside, every individual should be sharply distinguished by her work.
  25. The 2 AM PrincipleJon Levy2018Remember that the size of your life is proportional to how uncomfortable you are willing to be.
  26. The OutsidersWilliam N. Thorndike2020Like others in this book, he relied on simple but powerful rules in evaluating transactions. For Murphy, that benchmark was a double-digit after-tax return over ten years without leverage.
  27. Where Good Ideas Come FromSteven Johnson2020The scientist Stuart Kauffman has a suggestive name for the set of all those first-order combinations: “the adjacent possible.” The phrase captures both the limits and the creative potential of change and innovation.
  28. Spark JoyMarie Kondo2019rectangle. 2. Fold the rectangle in half lengthwise. 3. Fold this in half or in thirds.
  29. The Score Takes Care of ItselfBill Walsh2019Do all the right things to precision and “the score will take care of itself” sums up my father’s philosophy, which is why we thought it the perfect title for his book.
  30. Self-HelpSamuel Smiles2023The wealthy man may pay others for doing his work for him, but it is impossible to get his thinking done for him by another, or to purchase any kind of self-culture.
  31. Disciplined EntrepreneurshipBill Aulet2020The best scenario is when you are the potential customer yourself and have a deep understanding of the problem you are trying to solve.
  32. The Art of Doing Science and EngineeringRichard W. Hamming2020What is possible? What is likely to happen? What is desirable to have happen?
  33. The FoundersJimmy Soni2022As work on V progressed, the team’s doubts deepened. Testing an early V iteration, the site’s Send Money button—arguably the most vital one of all—failed to function.
  34. Essential Poker MathAlton Hardin2022Well, what does equity mean? Equity is our share of the pot if a hand is played to showdown. It tells us how much we expect to win in the long-run, based upon how often we should win. Furthermore, it’s based on probability and odds.
  35. Daily RitualsMason Currey2019He said that it’s a very good idea that after you write a little bit, stop and then copy it. Because while you’re copying it, you’re thinking about it, and it’s giving you other ideas.
  36. Iron AmbitionMike Tyson2020I was so happy to be getting attention. I wanted people to look at me and adore me but then I got mad when they did! I was so crazy then.
  37. The Checklist ManifestoAtul Gawande2018and nine items, which is the limit of working memory. Boorman didn’t think one had to be religious on this point.
  38. Juliet’s School of PossibilitiesLaura Vanderkam2019Expectations are infinite. Time is finite. You are always choosing. Choose well.
  39. The Lean StartupEric Ries2018Numbers tell a compelling story, but I always remind entrepreneurs that metrics are people, too. No
  40. Where Is My Flying Car?J Storrs Hall2020(The Air Force even built and tested a nuclear aircraft engine!

Gallery Θʹ · ΜΟΥΣΑΙNovels and Plays

50 books · presided over by Calliope

  1. A German Officer in Occupied ParisErnst Jünger2026In long periods of asceticism when we tame our thoughts, we get a foretaste of the wisdom of old age, of serenity.
  2. SubmissionMichel Houellebecq2026Jesus had loved men too much, that was the problem; to let himself be crucified for their sake showed, at the very least, a lack of taste, as the old faggot would have put it.
  3. Death’s EndCixin Liu2020AA’s words slid across Cheng Xin’s thoughts like drops of water across a lily pad, leaving no trace. Cheng Xin’s only thought was to find Yun Tianming and tell him everything.
  4. Journey to the End of the NightLouis-Ferdinand Céline2025Gustave would have done practically anything for me. He admired me in fact. He told me so. He didn’t know why. Neither did I. But he admired me. He was the only one.
  5. The Red and the BlackStendhal2026Father Pirard had gone to take up his parish duties. “If Julien is a slender reed, let him perish. If he has the courage, let him figure this business out, all by himself,” he thought.
  6. NostromoJoseph Conrad2026She was highly gifted in the art of human intercourse which consists in delicate shades of self-forgetfulness and in the suggestion of universal comprehension.
  7. On the Marble CliffsErnst Jünger2026On the pointed gables, the redstarts now began their day and fed their second brood, whose hungry chirps sounded like the whetting of knives.
  8. The Possibility of an IslandMichel Houellebecq2021Light is one, but its rays are innumerable. I have rediscovered the meaning of the Word; corpses and ashes will guide my feet, as will the memory of the good dog Fox.
  9. Anna KareninaLeo Tolstoy2026He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.
  10. The Annotated Pride and PrejudiceJane Austen2026That is very true,” replied Elizabeth, “and I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.
  11. The Western CanonHarold Bloom2026Reviewing bad books, W. H. Auden once remarked, is bad for the character.
  12. The Magic MountainThomas Mann2024A man lives not only his personal life, as an individual, but also, consciously or unconsciously, the life of his epoch and his contemporaries.
  13. The Elementary ParticlesMichel Houellebecq2024Aldous Huxley is probably one of the most influential thinkers of the century.
  14. The Dark ForestCixin Liu2020I have a dream that one day brilliant sunlight will illuminate the dark forest.
  15. Bend SinisterVladimir Nabokov2026All those who are because they do not think, thus refuting Cartesianism.
  16. PersuasionJane Austen2026She had given him up to oblige others. It had been the effect of over-persuasion. It had been weakness and timidity.
  17. ApproachesErnst Jünger2026Intoxication and crime are neighboring phenomena and sometimes difficult to separate, especially in their borderline manifestations.
  18. Stories of Your Life and OthersTed Chiang2019And after I looked at him for a while, I found it really easy to imagine that he was a nice guy!
  19. WhateverMichel Houellebecq2026This can be expressed in a more brutal and less exact way by saying that man is a diminished adolescent.
  20. The Annotated Sense and SensibilityJane Austen2026Edward Ferrars was not recommended to their good opinion by any peculiar graces of person or address. He was not handsome, and his manners required intimacy to make them pleasing.
  21. The Annotated Northanger AbbeyJane Austen2026Their joy on this meeting was very great, as well it might, since they had been contented to know nothing of each other for the last fifteen years.
  22. SerotoninMichel Houellebecq2021There must have been something to her besides sex; or perhaps not – it was frightening to think that maybe there had in fact been only sex.
  23. LolitaVladimir Nabokov2025As a case history, “Lolita” will become, no doubt, a classic in psychiatric circles.
  24. The Luzhin DefenseVladimir Nabokov2026The doctor started coming every night and since he was really a first-rate player he derived enormous pleasure from these incessant defeats.
  25. Chilean PoetAlejandro Zambra2025He switches to a book by Andrés Anwandter. He reads and rereads these lines for one or two kilometers: You start to write a poem whose subject is a deep lake the night finds you there now you won’t know the way back.
  26. Hadji MurádLeo Tolstoy2026Very well… A rope should be long but a speech short," said Hadji Murád.
  27. The SleepersMatthew Gasda2025He opened Twitter. Twitter made his brain go haywire. It felt amazing.
  28. Bartleby, the ScrivenerHerman Melville2026I was not unemployed in my profession by the late John Jacob Astor; a name which, I admit, I love to repeat, for it hath a rounded and orbicular sound to it, and rings like unto bullion.
  29. Invisible PlanetsKen Liu2020As the proverb says, the birds have the sky while the fish have the sea. They pass by in the same town, but it’s as if they see one another without seeing one another.
  30. ExhalationTed Chiang2019She looked at Dana curiously. “Don’t you ever wonder if you made the wrong choice?” I don’t have to wonder; I know. But aloud Dana said, “Of course. But I try to focus on the here and now.
  31. Much Ado About NothingWilliam Shakespeare2026Adam’s sons are my brethren, 63 and truly I hold it a sin to match in my kindred.
  32. Romeo and JulietWilliam Shakespeare2024Now, by my maidenhead, at twelve year old, I bade her come. What, lamb! what, ladybird! God forbid! Where's this girl? What, Juliet!
  33. CirceMadeline Miller2022I felt myself tremble, but I would not let him see it. Great gods smell fear like sharks smell blood, and they will devour you for it just the same.
  34. DuneFrank Herbert2021Once you’ve given orders on a subject, you must always give orders on that subject.
  35. The Annotated EmmaJane Austen2026Hartfield will only put her out of conceit with all the other places she belongs to. She will grow just refined enough to be uncomfortable with those among whom birth and circumstances have placed her home.
  36. The Obscene Bird of NightJosé Donoso2025But how could one decide to become part of a world whose loftiest truths are determined by a dish of marinated eels?
  37. PiranesiSusanna Clarke2020There is a thing that I know but always forget: Winter is hard. The cold goes on and on and it is only with difficulty and effort that a person keeps himself warm.
  38. Chronicle of a Death ForetoldGabriel García Márquez2025The lights were out, but as soon as I went in I caught the smell of a warm woman and I saw the eyes of an insomniac leopard in the darkness, and then I didn’t know anything else about myself until the bells began to ring.
  39. Euripides ThreeDavid Greene2023Tell me, what conduct could be worse than to give your friend a lifetime of honor and respect but neglect him when he dies?
  40. FiccionesJorge Luis Borges2023Buckley did not believe in God, but nevertheless wished to demonstrate to the nonexistent God that mortal men were capable of conceiving a world.
  41. History in English WordsOwen Barfield2020And then they began to move. And the result was the Bhagavad Gita, the Parthenon frieze, the Roman Empire, and the Holy Roman Empire—it was Buddha, Michelangelo, the plays of Shakespeare, Bach, Goethe
  42. Love in the Time of CholeraGabriel García Márquez2025
  43. MaryVladimir Nabokov2026They would fire a barrage of murderous brilliance, illumining the painted wax of motionless faces, then expiring with a click—but for a long time yet there would glow, in those elaborate crystals, dying red sunsets—our human shame.
  44. PninVladimir Nabokov2026He was beloved not for any essential ability but for those unforgettable digressions of his, when he would remove his glasses to beam at the past while massaging the lenses of the present.
  45. The Unquiet GraveCyril Connolly2023Life is a maze in which we take the wrong turning before we have learnt to walk.
  46. Bronze Age MindsetBronze Age Pervert2023
  47. IliumDan Simmons2021every effort running what one twentieth-century scholar called “the full risk of failure.
  48. The Complete CosmicomicsItalo Calvino2022
  49. The Rage of AchillesTerence Hawkins2022He knows enough not to look behind. A leader must act as though he never doubts he will be followed.
  50. The War of the End of the WorldMario Vargas Llosa2023

326 books, 2018–2026. Shelved by author within each gallery. The finch’s song is the same field recordings as in the square; credits are there.