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Episodes
Former President of Harvard University Charles W. Eliot wrote in his introduction to the Harvard Classics, "In my opinion, a five-foot shelf would hold books enough to give a liberal education to any one who would read them with devotion, even if he could spare but fifteen minutes a day for reading." Here you are, you can easily listen to his entire 15-minutes-a-day study guide while commuting to and from work (most of us spend far more than 15 minutes a day commuting each day), doing mundane work in the office, washing dishes at home, or doing most of the things day in and day out. It is so easy, so entertaining, and so educational that they can be listened to again and again, until they permeate into our own thinking and into our characters. Perhaps, in one year's time, you will become someone you barely recognize, all for the better. Who knows?
-- Rich E Book
Episodes
Mar 1, 2022
Mar 1, 2022
Mar 1, 2022
9 min
Word pictures are often more vivid than photographs. Steele had a gift for originating characters that are remembered longer than flesh and blood people. Sir Roger de Coverly and Will Honeycomb are now bold figures in literature. (Volume 27, Harvard Classics)
First issue of the "Spectator," published March 1, 1711.
Feb 28, 2022
Feb 28, 2022
Feb 28, 2022
29 min
Proficient in Latin even before he knew his own tongue, Montaigne received an unusual education. His whole life was spent in storing up his choice thoughts for our profit and pleasure. (Volume 32, Harvard Classics)
Michel de Montaigne born Feb. 28, 1533.
Feb 27, 2022
Feb 27, 2022
Feb 27, 2022
18 min
"Tell me not in mournful numbers, life is but an empty dream..."
"Stars of the summer night! Far in yon azure deeps--"
So begin poems that have charmed and cheered thousands. (Volume 42, Harvard Classics)
Longfellow born Feb. 27, 1807.
Feb 26, 2022
Feb 26, 2022
Feb 26, 2022
27 min
Hugo was insulted by the most powerful critics in France. He put into the preface of a play "his sling and his stone" by which others might slay "the classical Goliath." (Volume 39, Harvard Classics)
Victor Hugo born Feb. 26, 1802.
Feb 25, 2022
Feb 25, 2022
Feb 25, 2022
27 min
The brilliant wit and cutting satire of Defoe made for him friends and enemies --- but mostly enemies. So piercing and two-edged was "The Shortest-Way with Dissenters" that he was fined, imprisoned and pilloried. (Volume 27, Harvard Classics)
"The Shortest-Way with Dissenters" censored, Feb. 25. 1703.