"Don Quijote" by Cervantes Saavedra
Much reading and book-learning can drive you to try and become one of the characters in your favorite novels.
This is what happens to Don Quixote, who attempts many chivalrous knightly acts while hampered by a world that has rejected knightly virtues.
The Guardian placed this 400-year-old classic novel among the its all-time Top 100 books.
Cervantes weaves all three elements - madness, comedy, and fantasy - in between conversations and adventures shared between Quixote and Sancho Panza, his seemingly simple-minded but loyal and outspoken aide de camp.
"A Treatise of Human Nature" by David Hume
Exploring the link between science and human nature, or a scientifically applied moral philosophy, is the goal of this Treatise.
Building on early complaints against the endless conjecture and wranglings between philosophers, this work promotes a move away from metaphysical speculation and a permanent shift toward systems based on observational fact.
By banishing supernatural doctrine that looks beyond the existing world, fear and prejudice can take a backseat in human experience.
"None" by B. Kovner
Einstein's favourite reading during his last few months of his life were humorist stories of B.Knovner, a writer for the Jewish Daily Forward.
Kovner (pen name for Jacob Adler) wrote a series of humoirst stories in Yiddish for the forward. Einstein looked forward to each new episode in his last several months.
"Isis Unveiled: Secrets of the Ancient Wisdom Tradition" by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
As a theosophist, Blavatsky promoted pantheism and greatly influenced both Mahatma Gandhi and Annie Besant.
In this work, spiritualism and occult practices are the base for examining ancient Eastern and Western wisdom, rather than the traditionally reversed path of finding knowledge.
Blavatsky examines existing philosophical systems and ideas and finds them to be inadquate.
"The Brothers Karamasov" by Dostoevsky
This is of the best allegorical novels to explain the fractured nature of 19th century Russia. Each character is representative of one of the ruling classes.
There is the father Fyodor, the landowner who is negligent about his land, but greedy in using its produce for himself. There's Dmitri, who has been passed around from house to house. There's the skeptic Ivan, who wishes to live more among cold concepts than people. And gentle Alyosha, the mystic and religious peacemaker, and the illegitimate Smerdyakov.
Throughout are themes of love, law, and duty, which makes this one of the best Dostoyesky books to read besides Crime and Punishment.
This is what happens to Don Quixote, who attempts many chivalrous knightly acts while hampered by a world that has rejected knightly virtues.
The Guardian placed this 400-year-old classic novel among the its all-time Top 100 books.
Cervantes weaves all three elements - madness, comedy, and fantasy - in between conversations and adventures shared between Quixote and Sancho Panza, his seemingly simple-minded but loyal and outspoken aide de camp.
"A Treatise of Human Nature" by David Hume
Exploring the link between science and human nature, or a scientifically applied moral philosophy, is the goal of this Treatise.
Building on early complaints against the endless conjecture and wranglings between philosophers, this work promotes a move away from metaphysical speculation and a permanent shift toward systems based on observational fact.
By banishing supernatural doctrine that looks beyond the existing world, fear and prejudice can take a backseat in human experience.
"None" by B. Kovner
Einstein's favourite reading during his last few months of his life were humorist stories of B.Knovner, a writer for the Jewish Daily Forward.
Kovner (pen name for Jacob Adler) wrote a series of humoirst stories in Yiddish for the forward. Einstein looked forward to each new episode in his last several months.
"Isis Unveiled: Secrets of the Ancient Wisdom Tradition" by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
As a theosophist, Blavatsky promoted pantheism and greatly influenced both Mahatma Gandhi and Annie Besant.
In this work, spiritualism and occult practices are the base for examining ancient Eastern and Western wisdom, rather than the traditionally reversed path of finding knowledge.
Blavatsky examines existing philosophical systems and ideas and finds them to be inadquate.
"The Brothers Karamasov" by Dostoevsky
This is of the best allegorical novels to explain the fractured nature of 19th century Russia. Each character is representative of one of the ruling classes.
There is the father Fyodor, the landowner who is negligent about his land, but greedy in using its produce for himself. There's Dmitri, who has been passed around from house to house. There's the skeptic Ivan, who wishes to live more among cold concepts than people. And gentle Alyosha, the mystic and religious peacemaker, and the illegitimate Smerdyakov.
Throughout are themes of love, law, and duty, which makes this one of the best Dostoyesky books to read besides Crime and Punishment.
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