You can find a complete listing of all the articles on this site here. They are listed in reverse chronological order, and are all clickable links. Twenty-five articles are displayed per page, with the publication date included. To find older articles, click on the page numbers at the bottom.
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Why You Shouldn’t “Stay In Your Lane” (Podcast)
So-called “experts” and pundits will always try to pigeon-hole you. They will try to categorize you as they see fit, in order to make themselves feel good. If you are pursuing your passions or mission, you’ll notice people trying to “put you in your place.” Some alleged “authority” will try to cut you down.
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A Great Summary On The Importance Of “On Duties” In The Western Tradition
Here’s a very good paper from 2014 that discusses the importance of On Duties in the Western tradition. It’s one of the best summaries out there, and I think readers will benefit from going through it. The writers call it a “core text for every curriculum.”
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Petrarch Reflects On The Causes And Cures For His Depression
The Renaissance literary figure Petrarch met his fame and success with ambivalence. On the one hand it was the fulfillment of what he had worked for, but on the other, it left him with deep feelings of unease. These feelings eventually ripened into outright contempt for those who could not understand the origin of his malaise.
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Wisdom, Intelligence, Education, And Leaving A Job
We deal with a few recent questions from readers. They are:
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Brazil’s “Rubber Soldiers”: A Tale Of Courage And Woe
I had a chance yesterday to learn more about a strange and tragic incident in recent Brazilian history: the country’s so-called “rubber soldiers” (soldados na borracha) program of the Second World War. The story is almost totally unknown in the United States, and for this reason I thought it would be worthwhile to share some…
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Some Wisdom From Chilon And Diogenes
Here are some sayings and stories taken from Diogenes Laertius’s Lives of the Philosophers. I’ve mentioned this book in a few previous articles here. Practical life advice, amusing anecdotes, and mischievous criticisms of famous names never lose their freshness or fail to bring a smile. Indeed, we often forget that one of the greatest lessons…
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Many Go To The Market-Place, But Few Seek The Crown At Olympia
Diogenes Laertius’s Lives of the Philosophers contains interesting stories and sayings of a great many ancient Greek sages, of whom most we would otherwise know almost nothing. My own well-worn copy of the book presented me recently with the wit and wisdom of Lyco, who is said to have lived from 299 to 225 B.C.…
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“Someone’s Lecturing Me On How To Be A Parent” (Podcast)
A reader is annoyed that someone is trying to tell him how he should approach and think about his parental responsibilities. This person is appears to be crossing lines of decorum, but as often happens, I suspect there is more to the story here.
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Mehmet II (The Conqueror) Takes Constantinople
Many decades before 1453 (the year Constantinople finally fell to the Ottoman Turks), the Byzantine “Empire” had become a sad parody of its former self. Mismanagement, bad leadership, and the inability of the old state to cope with the challenges of its strategic environment had fatally doomed it long before Ottoman cannon breached its walls.
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Michael Psellus On The Challenge Of Being An Emperor
Michael Psellus (1017-1078?) was a Greek cleric, historian, and advisor to a number of Byzantine emperors. His work, known by the name Chronographia, is a series of biographical portraits of fourteen emperors occupying the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire from about 978 to 1050. Although not a well-known work, it is a candid and intimate…
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The Grave Of Suleiman The Magnificent
A news agency recently reported the discovery of the tomb of Suleiman the Magnificient, who by general consensus was the greatest of all the Ottoman sultans. Suleiman, who lived from 1494 to 1566, is now nearly unknown in the West; but he was, in the words of one eminent historian, “the greatest and ablest ruler…
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“This We Do Not Tolerate” (Podcast)
We discuss a moral problem that arose in Japanese prison camps in the Second World War. We discuss how the same moral issue is relevant today, and what Cicero’s response to it would have been. What duty is owed to our fellow man? When does the pursuit of self-interest go too far?
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Should There Be Regulations On Platform Businesses?
“Platform businesses” have been all the rage for years now. The general idea of a platform business is that it provides an opportunity for a buyer and a seller to meet and perform a transaction. Airbnb, Fiverr, and Uber are examples of such businesses. [To read the rest of the article, click here.]
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Developing Light Machine-Gun Tactics
Today we take for granted the fact that infantry units are equipped with all sorts of portable firepower. Squads carrying light machine-guns are accepted as natural and part of the battlefield equation. But it was not always so.
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Is The World Worse Today Than It Used To Be? (Podcast)
We often get the impression that the world is in chaos, and that the proverbial sky is falling down. Yet our perceptions are distorted by factors that we often fail to appreciate. We discuss some of them.
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Fortress Of The Mind Receives Rare 1642 Edition Of “On Duties”
The generosity of people never ceases to amaze me.
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U.S. Grant Goes On The Offensive: The Fall Of Forts Henry And Donelson
War brought out the bulldog in U.S. Grant. A decent man but a failure in civilian life, he was good at one thing, and one thing only: war. His method was to hone in on his enemy, get in close, and figuratively grab him by the belt to keep him close. So positioned, he would…
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The Overcoat Of Alexander H. Stephens
Ulysses S. Grant relates the following anecdote in his memoirs.
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Dreams As Memories And Endowments
I was recently corresponding with a reader on the topic of finding inspiration for creative activity. The conversation veered into the subject of dreams. In what way, we wondered, do dreams inspire or retard development of the creative impulse? And what is the source of dreams? The subject is one of general interest, and seems…
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The Struggle For Little Round Top: Tipping The Scales Of Fate
There is a scene in the 1987 film Wall Street when the Charlie Sheen character (Bud Fox) is about to meet the formidable Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas). He says to himself, “Well, life all comes down to a few moments. This is one of them.”
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“Am I Too Indecisive?” (Podcast)
A reader has a high-powered job and is able to function effectively in what he does. But he’s concerned that he may not be as decisive as he needs to be in his personal life.
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General Slim’s Afterthoughts On Victory
At the conclusion of his memoirs, General William Slim, the British commander in the Second World War’s Burmese and India theaters, had some pungent observations on the conduct of the war and its ultimate outcome. Originally defeated in the field, he came back to hammer the Japanese decisively in some of the most remarkable ground…
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Vitruvius Discusses Water Prospecting
The Roman engineer and architect Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c. 75 B.C.–c. 15 A.D.) wrote an extensive and invaluable work (De Architectura) that describes all types of topics in construction and building. We will here describe his interesting (and somewhat amusing) method of locating water springs. This information can be found in book VIII, ch. 1…
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Idealism Vs. Practicality In Career Choices: How To Find The Balance (Podcast)
When choosing or pursuing a career, should we base our decision on “idealism” or on “practicality”? What is the balance between doing what you love, and what can earn you a living? And how do we find this balance? We explore some answers.
Original copy of Cicero’s De Officiis (On Duties) published in Holland in 1642. From the collection of Fortress of the Mind.
Quintus Curtius 
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