Elon Musk
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Noam Chomsky
Read by Elon Musk, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Noam Chomsky and 1 others
The Wealth of Nations
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
byAdam Smith
17761264 Pages“In political economy, I think Smith's Wealth of Nations the best book extant.”
— Thomas Jefferson
Source: Letter to Thomas Mann Randolph, 30 May 1790
byAlexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay
1788559 Pages“The best commentary on the principles of government which ever was written.”
— Thomas Jefferson
Source: Letter to James Madison, 18 November 1788
Don Quixote
The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha
byMiguel de Cervantes
2003976 Pages“Don Quixote... I read it twice or three times before I can read one of [novels of the present day].”
— Thomas Jefferson
Source: Letter to Peter Carr, 19 August 1785
A Treatise on Political Economy
To Which is Prefixed a Supplement to a Preceding Work on the Understanding
byAntoine Destutt de Tracy
2011288 Pages“The merit of this work will, I hope, place it in the hands of every reader in our country. By diffusing sound principles of Political Economy, it will protect the public industry from the parasite institutions now consuming it.”
— Thomas Jefferson
Source: Letter to Joseph Milligan, 6 April 1816
The Poems of Ossian
And Related Works
byJames Macpherson
1765592 Pages“These pieces have been, and will I think during my life continue to be, to me, the source of daily and exalted pleasure. The tender and the sublime emotions of the mind were never before so wrought up by the human hand. I am not ashamed to own that I think this rude bard of the North the greatest Poet that has ever existed.”
— Thomas Jefferson
Source: Letter to Charles McPherson, 25 February 1773
byLaurence Sterne
2003784 Pages“The writings of Sterne... form the best course of morality that ever was written.”
— Thomas Jefferson
Source: Letter to Peter Carr, 10 August 1787
byJohn Locke
1988478 Pages“Locke’s little book on government, is perfect as far as it goes.”
— Thomas Jefferson
Source: Letter to Thomas Mann Randolph, 30 May 1790
A New and Impartial History of England
From the Most Early Period of Genuine Historical Evidence to the Present Important and Alarming Crisis
byJohn Baxter
2018884 Pages“He has taken Hume's work... and wherever he has found him endeavoring to mislead... he has changed the text to what it should be, so that we may properly call it Hume's history republicanised.”
— Thomas Jefferson
Source: Letter to John Norvell, 11 June 1807
Discourses
And Selected Writings
byEpictetus
108304 Pages“In morality, read Epictetus, Xenophontis Memorabilia, Plato’s Socratic dialogues, Cicero’s philosophies, Antoninus, and Seneca.”
— Thomas Jefferson
Source: Letter to Peter Carr, 19 August 1785
Memorabilia
Recollections of Socrates
byXenophon
2001208 Pages“In morality, read... Xenophontis Memorabilia.”
— Thomas Jefferson
Source: Letter to Peter Carr, 19 August 1785
Travels of Anacharsis the Younger in Greece
During the Middle of the Fourth Century Before the Christian Era
byJean-Jacques Barthélemy
1788594 Pages“I have just finished reading the Travels of Anacharsis... it is a most excellent work.”
— Thomas Jefferson
Source: Letter to Cornelia J. Randolph, 3 June 1811
Moral Tales
Marmontel's Moral Tales
byJean-François Marmontel
2004464 Pages“Such, I think, are Marmontel's new moral tales, but not his old ones, which are really immoral.”
— Thomas Jefferson
Source: Letter to Nathaniel Burwell, 14 March 1818
The Vicar of Wakefield
A Tale, Supposed to be Written by Himself
byOliver Goldsmith
1766224 PagesSource: Letter to Robert Skipwith, 3 August 1771
byLaurence Sterne
2002160 PagesSource: Letter to Robert Skipwith, 3 August 1771
Gulliver's Travels
Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World
byJonathan Swift
1726336 PagesSource: Letter to Robert Skipwith, 3 August 1771
The Adventures of David Simple
Containing an Account of His Travels Through the Cities of London and Westminster in the Search of a Real Friend
bySarah Fielding
2002528 PagesSource: Letter to Robert Skipwith, 3 August 1771
Elements of Criticism
A rational science of taste
byHenry Home, Lord Kames
1762864 PagesSource: Letter to Robert Skipwith, 3 August 1771
Meditations
A New Translation
byMarcus Aurelius
2003256 Pages(1,240,000)
“In morality, read... Antoninus.”
— Thomas Jefferson
Source: Letter to Peter Carr, 19 August 1785
byWilliam Shakespeare
1608456 Pages“Thus a lively and lasting sense of filial duty is more effectually impressed on the mind of a son or daughter by reading King Lear, than by all the dry volumes of ethics, and divinity that ever were written.”
— Thomas Jefferson
Source: Letter to Robert Skipwith, 3 August 1771
byAlgernon Sidney
1996645 PagesSource: Letter to Robert Skipwith, 3 August 1771
A Commentary and Review of Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws
To Which Are Annexed Observations on the Thirty-First Book by the Late M. Condorcet
byAntoine Destutt de Tracy
1811304 Pages“I cannot express to you the satisfaction which I received from its perusal... I had found [Montesquieu's] book to be but a collection of heresies... The Review of Montesquieu... is the element of that science which I have always so much wished for.”
— Thomas Jefferson
Source: Letter to Antoine Destutt de Tracy, 26 January 1811
byJohn Milton
1667512 Pages(184,500)
Source: Letter to Robert Skipwith, 3 August 1771
byVirgil
2008496 Pages(143,669)
Source: Letter to Peter Carr, 19 August 1785
The Misanthrope
or, The Cantankerous Lover
byMolière
2000352 PagesSource: Letter to Robert Skipwith, 3 August 1771
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