Utopia

Machiavelli's short, blunt manual on how power is won and kept, the book that turned his name into an adjective. Our own Project Aldus edition, with an introduction to his life in Renaissance Florence.

Niccolò Machiavelli

The other Machiavelli: a long reflection on the Roman Republic and why free states rise and fall. Read it next to The Prince to see the whole picture. Ninian Hill Thomson's translation.

Niccolò Machiavelli

Descartes tells how he decided to doubt everything and rebuild knowledge from a single certainty: I think, therefore I am. A short, personal book that launched modern philosophy.

René Descartes

Hobbes pictures life without government as nasty, brutish and short, and argues for a strong sovereign to escape it. The complete text in a clean modern layout.

Thomas Hobbes

Pascal's notes on faith, reason and the human condition, including his famous wager. W. F. Trotter's translation.

Blaise Pascal