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Essays, Letters & Speeches — page 7
1,315 public-domain essays, letters & speeches books, summarised. Page 7 of 28.
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 01 (of 12): Dresden Edition—Lectures
Robert Green Ingersoll
This collection gathers the fiery, articulate arguments of a nineteenth-century orator who championed reason, science, and the absolute liberty of the human mind. It serves as a manifesto for the secular age.
Man in the Iron Mask (an Essay)
Alexandre Dumas
A captive whose features were never seen, but whose existence haunted the corridors of power, remains the ultimate symbol of arbitrary, unreachable tyranny. No single key unlocks this cell, yet the mystery itself endures.
The Art of Letters
Robert Lynd
Literature is a conversation that transcends the grave, and these reflections serve as a bridge between the reader and the giants of the English tradition. Here, the pursuit of letters is treated not as a dry academic exercise, but as a living, breathing, and often messy human endeavor.
The Invisible Censor
Francis Hackett
A collection of incisive, restless observations that cut through the polite veneers of early twentieth-century American life to expose the uncomfortable truths underneath.
The Hidden Power, and Other Papers upon Mental Science
T. (Thomas) Troward
The universe is not a collection of external forces to be feared, but a living, responsive intelligence waiting for the individual to recognize their own inherent capacity to direct it.
Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown
Virginia Woolf
Literature is not a fixed museum of rules, but a living pursuit of the human spirit. To read this essay is to stand on a crowded platform, watching the tools of one generation clash against the vision of the next.
The Symbolist Movement in Literature
Arthur Symons
This critical survey illuminates the emergence of a revolutionary literary aesthetic, tracing how a generation of French poets and novelists shifted focus from the outer world to the elusive, inward landscape of the soul.
Cicero's Brutus or History of Famous Orators
Marcus Tullius Cicero
A master of the Roman Forum reflects on the evolution of his craft, mapping the history of public speech from its Greek origins to the heights of his own career.
A Collection of Essays and Fugitiv Writings: On Moral, Historical, Political, and Literary Subjects
Noah Webster
America’s young republic seeks a distinct identity, grappling with the tension between its newfound political sovereignty and an ingrained, lingering habit of imitating European manners, language, and social structures.
A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 02
Voltaire
Human reason constantly battles the absurdity of superstition, bad philosophy, and institutional cruelty. Through an alphabetical treasury of biting commentary, ancient myths and medieval dogmas are systematically dismantled to expose the mechanics of human credulity.
Glimpses of Bengal: Selected from the letters of Sir Rabindranath Tagore, 1885 to 1895
Rabindranath Tagore
A young writer retreats to the rural waterways of late nineteenth-century Bengal, finding in the quiet rhythms of river life a vast mirror for human emotion and artistic awakening.
Essays and Dialogues
Giacomo Leopardi
Despair turns into quiet clear-sightedness in these classical dialogues, which dismantle every human consolation from glory to progress with unrelenting, polished wit.
The Three Devils: Luther's, Milton's, and Goethe's
David Masson
Three historical visions of evil reveal how humanity's moral imagination shifts from literal demons to majestic rebels and cold, modern cynics.
Dreams
Henri Bergson
Dreams are not merely random artifacts of the sleeping mind; they are the result of a precise, energetic mental relaxation. By understanding the mechanism behind them, we uncover the hidden architecture of our own consciousness.
Common Sense
Thomas Paine
A fiery, unsparing plea for immediate American separation from British rule that strips monarchy of its ancient majesty and treats independence as a simple, urgent necessity.
Critical, Historical, and Miscellaneous Essays
Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron
A brilliant, sharp-eyed intelligence tears through centuries of European history and literature, measuring celebrated statesmen, flawed philosophers, and bloated books against the unyielding standards of practical reason and clear writing.
Model Speeches for Practise
Grenville Kleiser
A thoughtful study of public address reveals how spoken words shape national identity, rally fractured communities, and give voice to timeless human ideals.
The Ethics of George Eliot's Works
John Crombie Brown
Literature reveals its highest calling when it asks us to love something greater than our own immediate happiness.
More Letters of Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
A vast epistolary archive reveals how world-changing scientific ideas are forged through rigorous empirical debate, meticulous observation, and deep personal alliances across decades of ceaseless inquiry.
The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Nine Volumes, Volume 05: Miscellaneous Pieces
Samuel Johnson
A giant of eighteenth-century letters turns his formidable mind to dictionaries, Shakespeare, political satire, and legal theory, demonstrating how rigorous critical thinking transforms everyday prose into enduring literature.
The Works of the Emperor Julian, Vol. 2
Emperor of Rome Julian
Stripped of imperial posturing, these writings reveal a ruler wrestling with the gap between philosophical ideals and the messy realities of governing a divided empire.
Materials and Methods of Fiction: With an Introduction by Brander Matthews
Clayton Meeker Hamilton
An inquiry into the foundational mechanics of narrative, this treatise dissects how storytellers transform actualities into lasting human truths. It offers a precise roadmap for analyzing plot, character, and setting across verse and prose.
Birds and Poets
John Burroughs
A deep love for the open air meets a rigorous critical mind, proving that listening closely to a bird’s song is not so different from reading a great poet.
African and European Addresses
Theodore Roosevelt
A former American president journeys across two continents, delivering rigorous public addresses that bind practical statecraft to unyielding personal morality.
A Commonplace Book of Thoughts, Memories, and Fancies.: 2nd ed
Mrs. (Anna) Jameson
An inquiring mind gathers the loose threads of a lifetime, weaving fragmented insights on art, ethics, and human nature into a quiet, enduring reflection.
Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches
Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron
Macaulay’s speeches and essays trace the relentless march of human progress, arguing that political survival demands adapting ancient institutions to an ever-evolving society.
Anton Tchekhov, and Other Essays
Lev Shestov
Russian literature yields a philosophy far darker than formal dogma: when life confronts inescapable tragedy, reason crumbles and human hope quietly withers away.
Three Philosophical Poets: Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe
George Santayana
Great philosophy requires the breadth of imagination to encompass the entire human experience, transforming cold observations into a vision that speaks the language of the gods. This work explores how poetry serves as the ultimate vehicle for such wisdom.
A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 06
Voltaire
A sharp, irreverent assault on superstition, institutional power, and intellectual conceit, delivered through a sequence of biting alphabetical entries that range from ancient myth to modern religious politics. <Image alt="Portrait of Voltaire, the French Enlightenment philosopher and author" caption="Voltaire,…
The Forerunner, Volume 1 (1909-1910)
Unknown
An audacious, one-woman monthly journal from the turn of the twentieth century reimagines the structures of domestic labor, marriage, and culture to chart a path toward genuine human equality.
Selected Essays of Plutarch, Vol. II
Plutarch
An inquiry into human nature, divine justice, and the cosmos unfolds through lively philosophical dialogues that bridge historical action with metaphysical speculation.
Letters from Switzerland and Travels in Italy
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
A restless mind escapes the quiet constraints of northern Europe, discovering in the mountain passes and light-drenched ruins of the South a transformative encounter with nature, classical art, and the raw vitality of human life.
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 12 (of 12): Dresden Edition—Miscellany
Robert Green Ingersoll
The human mind finds its highest dignity not in submission to ancient dogmas, but in the unyielding pursuit of intellectual freedom, natural morality, and compassionate reason.
Stories of Symphonic Music: A Guide to the Meaning of Important Symphonies, Overtures, and Tone-poems from Beethoven to the Present Day
Lawrence Gilman
A guide to orchestral narrative unfolds the literary, mythical, and emotional tales hidden within classical scores.
Belford's Magazine, Vol. II, No. 3, February 1889: Dec 1888-May 1889
Various
The nineteenth-century literary landscape was vast and varied, and this periodical collection offers a quintessential glimpse into the era’s eclectic preoccupations. From the harsh realities of working-class poverty to the intrigue of coastal murder mysteries, the writing captures the moral urgency and social…
A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 09
Voltaire
A sharp, witty collection of observations and arguments, this work serves as a skeptical guide to the institutions, prejudices, and dogmas that shape the human experience.
Pleasant Talk About Fruits, Flowers and Farming
Henry Ward Beecher
A collection of rural observations and practical gardening advice, this work offers a window into the mid-nineteenth-century American spirit, where the cultivation of the soil is held as a moral and intellectual pursuit.
Idling in Italy: Studies of literature and of life
Joseph Collins
A guide to early twentieth-century Italian culture, this collection of essays invites travelers and students alike to move beyond the tourist’s superficial glance and engage deeply with the country’s modern literary soul.
The Book-Lovers' Anthology
Unknown
A gathered nosegay of strange flowers, this collection serves as a quiet guide to the enduring fellowship of books, binding together the observations of generations of thinkers who found their truest companions on the printed page.
Cicero: Letters to Atticus, Vol. 1 of 3
Marcus Tullius Cicero
A window into the private anxieties of Rome’s most eloquent statesman, these personal letters reveal the human frailty behind the public mask of a legend.
Studies in Occultism
H. P. (Helena Petrovna) Blavatsky
True occultism is the demanding science of the soul, requiring total self-renunciation rather than the mere acquisition of psychic power. It warns that misdirected ambition leads inevitably to the perils of black magic.
The Soul of the Indian: An Interpretation
Charles A. Eastman
A profound exploration of the spiritual life of the American Indian, this work reconstructs a philosophy of nature, stillness, and divine communion that existed long before the influence of the white man.
State of the Union Addresses
Theodore Roosevelt
These annual reports capture a transformative decade in American governance, chronicling the transition from a nineteenth-century republic to an emerging global power through the eyes of its most energetic executive.
The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 10 (of 12)
Edmund Burke
The British Empire stands at a precipice, where the corrupt wealth of distant provinces threatens to dissolve the moral foundation and political liberty of the metropole.
Homer and Classical Philology
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
A young scholar argues that classical philology must move beyond its internal squabbles to become a philosophical bridge between the modern world and the lost, idealized beauty of ancient Greece.
The Golden Gems of Life
Emory Adams Allen
The design of this work is to rouse to honorable effort those who are wasting their time and energies through indifference to life's prizes. It offers a structured guide for cultivating a life of purpose, duty, and inward strength.
What I believe
Bertrand Russell
A call for a life governed by reason, kindness, and scientific inquiry, this manifesto rejects supernatural dogma in favor of human-centered progress. It remains a foundational text for secular humanism, articulating a rational path toward a more compassionate society.
Recreations of Christopher North, Volume 2
John Wilson
The voice of a solitary, contemplative wanderer echoes through the glens and highlands of Scotland, inviting readers to witness the beauty of a landscape and the enduring spirit of its people.