Essays

By Michel de Montaigne

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What is human nature? What can a single person know of himself, the world around him, or even of God? Since their publication in 1580, Montaigne's Essays have been a fixture in the field of philosophy ...

On the Duty of Civil Disobedience

By Henry David Thoreau

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Henry David Thoreau’s 1849 essay On the Duty of Civil Disobedience is a groundbreaking work in the history of protest literature. Based on a series of lectures that he gave in Massachusetts, Civil D ...

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The Praise of Folly

By Desiderius Erasmus

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The Protestant Reformation was an historical event that dramatically changed Europe—and the world—forever. This essay is considered to be a major catalyst for that revolution. Folly it most certai ...

On the Decay of the Art of Lying

By Mark Twain

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On the Decay of the Art of Lying is Mark Twain’s 1885 address to the Historical and Antiquarian Society of Hartford, Connecticut. In this witty piece of prose, Twain defends the rightful place of ly ...

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