productivity – Nemo's Library

Letters of Pliny the Younger: On His Uncle Pliny the Elder

Posted on July 21, 2021; Last updated on October 16, 2021

I was delighted to find that you are so zealous a student of my uncle’s books that you would like to possess copies of them all, and that you ask me to give you a complete list of them. I will play the part of an index for you, and tell you, moreover, the order in which they were written: “Throwing the Javelin from Horseback,” one volume; this was composed, […]

“On Ends” by Cicero

Posted on October 29, 2011; Last updated on July 21, 2021

[Original Latin Title: De Finibus Bonorum Et Malorum; Volume XVII of Loeb Classical Library’s 28-volume series] An Epicurean’s Criticism of Education “[Epicurus] refused to consider any education worth the name that did not help to school us in happiness. Was he to spend his time in perusing poets, who give us nothing solid and useful, but merely childish amusement? Was he to occupy himself like Plato with music and geometry, […]

“On Old Age” by Cicero

Posted on August 27, 2011; Last updated on July 21, 2021

[Original Latin Title: Cato Maior de Senectute] A treatise extolling the virtues of mental pursuits and horticulture in defense of old age against its alleged disadvantages, “first, that it withdraws us from active pursuits; second, that it makes the body weaker; third, that it deprives us of almost all physical pleasures; and, fourth, that it is not far removed from death.” Cicero and his friend Atticus, to whom he dedicated […]