Cosimo Classics: 30 books

A disciple of Kant and a significant factor in shaping Nietzsche's thinking, Arthur Schopenhauer worked from the foundation that all knowledge derives from our experience of the world, but that our experience is necessarily subjective and formed by our own intellect and biases: reality, therefore,...

Yoshida Kenko's Essays in Idleness is a collection of his thoughts on his inner world and the world of Japanese life in the fourteenth century. He touched on topics as diverse as the benefits of the simple life ("There is indeed none but the complete hermit who leads a desirable life"),...

Presented here for the first time in one volume are the three founding documents of the United States and another that altered and divided the Union for a brief moment in history. • Declaration of Independence: Adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, this may be the most famous...

Known for his deeply mystical writings about Christianity, Nicholas of Cusa wrote this, his most popular work, against a backdrop of widespread Church corruption. God, he believed, is found in all things, and thus cannot be perceived by man's senses and intellect alone. The path to ultimate knowledge,...

This is an extraordinary work of travel writing that is more about the author's personal exploration than it is about monuments and museums. Inspired by a journey with an Eton colleague ten years prior, this memoir exemplifies how travel can become a personal experience and change who we are. Though...

Proudhon's most famous declaration that "property is theft" comes from this, his most famous work, published in French in 1840; the English translation dates from 1890. According to Proudhon, only that which is being used is real property. Land must be lived on or farmed to be property,...

Two Scottish Tales of Medical Compassion is a collection of two beloved short stories, "Rab and his Friends" and "A Doctor of the Old School," and a brand new history of the Edinburgh School of Medicine, all of which emphasize the importance of compassion and humanity in the medical field. "Rab and his...

Captain Jack Sparrow would shiver his timbers when faced with Sir Henry Morgan and his savage band of buccaneers. Sacking Porto Bellow, burning Panama, and even taking on the Spanish armada, Morgan stopped at nothing to acquire his precious lucre in the years 1666 to 1672. This vivid account, as told...

Whether you're up or down at the moment, one fact remains: the stock market is actually 75% psychological and only 25% financial. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE STOCK MARKET: Human Impulses Lead To Speculative Disasters is a brief, but fascinating guide about what really influences the way the financial markets...

The circulation of a mere rumor that the Morgan interests are accumulating Steel or that the Standard Oil crowd is getting out of St. Paul is sure at any time to create a market following. Most of the tips that are hawked about the Street are based on the supposition that somebody-or-other of consequence...

In How to Get What You Want, a pamphlet by New Thought author WALLACE D. WATTLES, he explains in a short but practical way what the factors for success are, and how anyone can develop and attain it in their life. Success is not what other people may think you should achieve, but it is getting what...

The classic fairy tale "Cinderella," as told originally by the Grimm brothers. Some elements will be quite familiar to modern readers, but a surprising twist delivers a moral at the end of the story.

It is perhaps one of the best known and most influential novels in all of literature: 1897’s Dracula didn’t merely inspire countless adaptations for stage and film, it invented an entire genre of horror: the vampire story, which continues to evolve today into wildly varied directions, from noir detective...

On the Origins of Money is a discussion of the history of money and currency, from its crudest form as cowrie shells, animal pelts, and salt in early societies to the coin and paper money we use today. Rather than focusing on the type or shape of the money, author and economist Carl Menger looks at...