Harvard Classics

Introductory note on Blaise Pascal (Volume 48, Harvard Classics)

To-day we have Fundamentalists and Modernists, each striving for the same goal. Pascal, two hundred and fifty years ago, gave his precepts of the fundamentals of religious thought. (Volume 48, Harvard Classics)

Pascal confers with Descartes, Sept. 27, 1647.

Introductory note on Miguel de Cervantes (Volume 14, Harvard Classics)

The gaunt lunatic, Don Quixote, saw the world through glasses colored with romanticism that had gone out of style hundreds of years before he was born. Cervantes made the world laugh at the exaggerated stories it had been devouring. (Volume 14, Harvard Classics)

Printing of Cervantes' "Don Quixote" licensed, Sept. 26, 1604.

Introductory note on John Stuart Mill (Volume 25, Harvard Classics)

John Stuart Mill in his autobiography boldly tells of his love for his friend's wife. After twenty years, she was freed from her first husband and was happily married to John Stuart Mill. Read the account of Mill's courtship. (Volume 25, Harvard Classics)

Introductory note on Plutarch (Volume 12, Harvard Classics)

When the serpent of Minerva disappeared from her temple, the priests said that the goddess had left Athens for the sea. Moreover, the oracles urged the Athenians to seek safety in their ships. Themistocles prompted these deceits. Why? (Volume 12, Harvard Classics)

Introductory note on Michel de Montaigne (Volume 32, Harvard Classics)

The Romans made an art of dying. The Egyptians looked on death with complacency. Moderns fear it. Montaigne argues that the purpose of philosophy is to teach men how to die. (Volume 32, Harvard Classics)