 Great Speeches
by Abraham Lincoln
Masterly orations and letters. "House Divided" speech (1858), First Inaugural Address (1861), Gettysburg Address (1863), Letter to Mrs. Bixby (1864), Second Inaugural Address (1865), 11 others.
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| |  Oedipus Rex
by Sophocles
Landmark of Western drama concerns the catastrophe that ensues when King Oedipus discovers he has inadvertently killed his father and married his mother. Masterly construction, dramatic irony. Explanatory footnotes.
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 The Prince
by Niccolò Machiavelli
Classic, Renaissance-era guide to acquiring and maintaining political power. Today, nearly 500 years after it was written, this calculating prescription for autocratic rule continues to be much read and studied.
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| |  The Devil’s Dictionary
by Ambrose Bierce
Over 1,000 barbed and brilliant definitions. Congratulations are "the civility of envy," a historian is a "broad-gauged gossip," many more. H. L. Mencken called these "some of the most gorgeous witticisms in the English language."
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 Symposium and Phaedrus
by Plato
Two important dialogues offer crucial insights into Platonic doctrine. Symposium deals with ultimate manifestation of love, eternal beauty. Phaedrus discusses psychology of love, "forms" as objects of transcendental emotion. Jowett translation.
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| |  Poetics
by Aristotle
Extraordinarily influential treatise on fine art contains seminal ideas on nature of drama, tragedy, poetry, music and more. Catharsis, tragic flaw, unities of time and place, other concepts.
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 Nicomachean Ethics
by Aristotle
Enduringly profound treatise, whose lasting effect on Western philosophy continues to resonate. Aristotle identifies the goal of life as happiness and discusses its attainment through the contemplation of philosophic truth.
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| |  The Republic
by Plato
Influential philosophical treatise of 4th century BC chiefly concerns the idea of justice, plus Platonic theories of ideas, criticism of poetry, philosopher's role. Source of the cave myth. Jowett translation.
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 Gorgias and Timaeus
by Plato
Gorgias addresses the temptations of success and the rewards of a moral life while Timaeus explains the world in terms not only of physical laws but also of metaphysical and religious principles.
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