Primary texts

Library

Complete works in trusted public-domain translations: read them here, cover to cover, beside the thinkers and places they came from.

George Berkeley

A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge

First published 1710

3 chapters

David Hume

A Treatise of Human Nature

First published 1739

12 chapters

Mary Wollstonecraft

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

First published 1792

15 chapters

David Hume

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

First published 1748

12 chapters

Plato

Apology

Translated by Benjamin Jowett, 1892

2 chapters

Friedrich Nietzsche

Beyond Good and Evil

Translated by Helen Zimmern, 1906

10 chapters

Voltaire

Candide

Translated by Anonymous (1918 Boni & Liveright edition), 1918

30 chapters

Zhuangzi

Chuang Tzŭ

Translated by Herbert Allen Giles, 1889

33 chapters

Thomas Paine

Common Sense

First published 1776

6 chapters

Augustine of Hippo

Confessions

Translated by E.B. Pusey, 1838

13 chapters

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Crime and Punishment

Translated by Constance Garnett, 1914

40 chapters

Immanuel Kant

Critique of Pure Reason

Translated by J.M.D. Meiklejohn, 1855

9 chapters

Plato

Crito

Translated by Benjamin Jowett, 1892

2 chapters

Laozi

Dao De Jing

Translated by James Legge, 1891

2 chapters

David Hume

Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

First published 1779

13 chapters

René Descartes

Discourse on the Method

Translated by John Veitch, 1850

6 chapters

Baruch Spinoza

Ethics

Translated by R.H.M. Elwes, 1883

5 chapters

Plato

Euthyphro

Translated by Benjamin Jowett, 1892

2 chapters

Heraclitus

Fragments

Translated by John Burnet, 1892

2 chapters

Rabindranath Tagore

Gitanjali

First published 1912

2 chapters

Plato

Gorgias

Translated by Benjamin Jowett, 1892

2 chapters

Immanuel Kant

Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals

Translated by Thomas Kingsmill Abbott, 1873

4 chapters

Epicurus

Letter to Menoeceus

Translated by Robert Drew Hicks, 1925

2 chapters

Seneca

Letters to Lucilius

Translated by Richard Mott Gummere, 1917

3 chapters

Thomas Hobbes

Leviathan

First published 1651

49 chapters

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations

Translated by George Long, 1862

12 chapters

René Descartes

Meditations on First Philosophy

Translated by John Veitch, 1853

9 chapters

Plato

Meno

Translated by Benjamin Jowett, 1892

2 chapters

Cicero

On Duties

Translated by Walter Miller, 1913

3 chapters

John Stuart Mill

On Liberty

First published 1859

5 chapters

Parmenides

On Nature

Translated by John Burnet, 1892

2 chapters

Lucretius

On the Nature of Things

Translated by William Ellery Leonard, 1916

6 chapters

Plato

Phaedo

Translated by Benjamin Jowett, 1892

2 chapters

Plato

Phaedrus

Translated by Benjamin Jowett, 1892

2 chapters

Plutarch

Plutarch's Morals: Ethical Essays

Translated by Arthur Richard Shilleto, 1888

26 chapters

Aristotle

Poetics

Translated by S.H. Butcher, 1895

1 chapter

Aristotle

Politics

Translated by William Ellis, 1776

8 chapters

Epicurus

Principal Doctrines

Translated by Robert Drew Hicks, 1925

4 chapters

Plato

Protagoras

Translated by Benjamin Jowett, 1892

2 chapters

Rabindranath Tagore

Sadhana: The Realisation of Life

First published 1913

8 chapters

Plato

Symposium

Translated by Benjamin Jowett, 1892

2 chapters

Confucius

The Analects

Translated by James Legge, 1861

20 chapters

Boethius

The Consolation of Philosophy

Translated by H.R. James, 1897

5 chapters

The Buddha

The Dhammapada

Translated by F. Max Müller, 1881

26 chapters

Epictetus

The Discourses of Epictetus

Translated by George Long, 1877

62 chapters

Epictetus

The Enchiridion

Translated by George Long, 1877

1 chapter

Pythagoras

The Golden Verses

Translated by Florence M. Firth, 1904

3 chapters

Leo Tolstoy

The Kingdom of God Is Within You

Translated by Constance Garnett, 1894

12 chapters

Seneca

The Minor Dialogues

Translated by Aubrey Stewart, 1889

14 chapters

Aristotle

The Nicomachean Ethics

Translated by Drummond Percy Chase, 1847

10 chapters

Niccolò Machiavelli

The Prince

Translated by W.K. Marriott, 1908

27 chapters

Plato

The Republic

Translated by Benjamin Jowett, 1892

10 chapters

Omar Khayyam

The Rubaiyat

Translated by Edward FitzGerald, 1859

2 chapters

William James

The Varieties of Religious Experience

First published 1902

15 chapters

Adam Smith

The Wealth of Nations

First published 1776

33 chapters

Plato

Theaetetus

Translated by Benjamin Jowett, 1892

2 chapters

Friedrich Nietzsche

Thus Spake Zarathustra

Translated by Thomas Common, 1909

81 chapters

Cicero

Tusculan Disputations

Translated by C.D. Yonge, 1853

5 chapters

John Stuart Mill

Utilitarianism

First published 1863

5 chapters

Every text in the library is in the public domain worldwide: the works are ancient or long out of copyright, and each translation was published before 1931 by a translator who died before 1956. Provenance and any changes we made are recorded on each book's page.