Your Only Failure Is Your Utter Lack of Culture: Eight Life Lessons from Anton Chekhov’s Letter to His Brother

You have only one failing, and the falseness of your position, and your unhappiness and your catarrh of the bowels are all due to it. That is your utter lack of culture.

The Last Line of a Poem by Pierre Béarn: ‘Métro Boulot Dodo’

Many of us confront the monotonous modern cycle of commuting (métro) and working (boulot) until we're ground into sleep (dodo). There's a French idiom that nicely sums up the life of the Sisyphean commuter: Métro Boulot Dodo [me-tro boo-lo doh-doh]. In English, we might say: "eat, work, sleep, repeat." But nah... it sounds more existentially despairing in French. …

An Alphabet of Celebrities: ‘Knowledge Worth Having’

Leafing through this old A-to-Z of celebrities is like finding a Mad Magazine from the nineteenth century. The book's lyrics and images wondrously lampoon the– mostly– old men of European civilization. Instead of being revered as timeless sages, they are brought low, returned to us as fallen flesh-and-blood creatures. Their everyday lives get the tabloid treatment. And, just like today, lust is the common sin that most often brings these high and mighty men crashing down to earth.

Stoicism Depicted & Defined

Stoicism. The principle that emotional and physical self-control leads to inner peace and strength, allowing one to live a happier life.

Quote: Aristotle on the Pursuit of Philosophy

For 'reason is the god in us' [some poets say] and 'Mortal life contains a portion of some god.' We ought, therefore, either to pursue philosophy or to say farewell to life and depart hence.

Quote: Otto Weininger on Logic and Ethics

Logic and ethics are fundamentally the same, they are no more than duty to oneself.

Are You an Individualist or Collectivist?

Do you think your individual or group identity is more important? Are you an individualist or collectivist?

Quote: Plato on Queer, Vicious, or Perfectly Useless Philosophers

Of all those who start out on philosophy—not those who take it up for the sake of getting educated when they are young and then drop it, but those who linger in it for a longer time—most become quite queer, not to say completely vicious; while the ones who seem perfectly decent ... become useless Plato Republic (487C-D)