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Einstein Breaks Up with His First Girlfriend
“It fills me with a peculiar kind of satisfaction that now I myself have to taste some of the pain that I brought upon the dear girl through my thoughtlessness and ignorance of her delicate nature....
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J.R.R. Tolkien Tells Off the Nazis
When J.R.R. Tolkien published The Hobbit on September 21st, 1937, it was immediately met with critical acclaim and high levels of commercial demand. Naturally, in the ensuing months, publishing houses...
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Watch Your Head: Wisdom from a 79-Year-Old Ben Franklin
“You mention your being in your seventy-eighth year; I am in my seventy-ninth; we are grown old together. It is now more than sixty years since I left Boston, but I remember well both your father and...
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The Sovereign Subject: Adams, Jefferson, and Krauthammer on Why They Studied...
“The science of government it is my duty to study… I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and...
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Mark Twain’s Hilarious, Furious Letter to an Idiot
Here’s the story: in the winter of 1905, Mark Twain received a package and hand-written letter from a “doctor” out of California named J.H. Todd. After a cursory look at the items, Twain recognized...
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I Like Words
Here’s the story: In 1934, a twenty-five-year-old named Robert Pirosh quit his well-paying but tedious job as a copywriter in New York and moved to Hollywood, hoping to kickstart his dream career as a...
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Jefferson’s Ten Rules
To Thomas Jefferson Smith.Monticello, February 21, 1825. This letter will, to you, be as one from the dead. The writer will be in the grave before you can weigh its counsels. Your affectionate and...
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What to be Wary of in Your Government
“The management of so complicated and mighty a machine, as the United Colonies, requires the meekness of Moses, the patience of Job and the wisdom of Solomon, added to the valour of Daniel… We may...
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What Could’ve Been among Jews and Arabs
Paris, March 3, 1919. DEAR MR. FRANKFURTER: I want to take this opportunity of my first contact with American Zionists to tell you what I have often been able to say to Dr. Weizmann in Arabia and...
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Jefferson on Taking Life as It Comes
“The most fortunate of us, in our journey through life, frequently meet with calamities and misfortunes which may greatly afflict us; and, to fortify our minds against the attacks of these calamities...
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Mr. Jefferson, Would You Live Your Life over Again?
“You ask if I would agree to live my 70, or rather 73, years over again? To which I say Yea. I think with you that it is a good world on the whole, that it has been framed on a principle of...
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Glory’s Moonshine
“No one can deny I have done the State some service in the field, but I have always desired that strife should cease at the earliest possible moment. I confess, without shame, I am sick and tired of...
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J.R.R. Tolkien’s Advice for Finding the Right Girl
“In this fallen world the ‘friendship’ that should be possible between all human beings, is virtually impossible between man and woman… Later in life when sex cools down, it may be possible. It may...
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Galileo Squares Faith and Reason
“I think in the first place that it is very pious to say and prudent to affirm that the holy Bible can never speak untruth — whenever its true meaning is understood. But I believe nobody will deny...
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Thinking Hard about the Everyday
“Whenever I thought of you I couldn’t help thinking of a particular incident which seemed to me very important. You & I were walking along the river towards the railway bridge & we had a...
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