Sources

Sources and public-domain notes

Simple Classics uses short study excerpts from public-domain editions and adds original plain-English explanations.

Public-domain status can vary by country. This MVP is written for a United States web context and avoids modern copyrighted translations. Before adding long verbatim excerpts, each source edition should be checked again.

Sun Tzu

The Art of War

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Source: Project Gutenberg eBook #132
Translator: Lionel Giles
Publication note: English translation originally published in 1910.
Copyright note: Project Gutenberg lists this eBook as public domain in the USA.

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations

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Source: Project Gutenberg eBook #2680
Publication note: Public-domain English edition used for short study excerpts.
Copyright note: Project Gutenberg lists this eBook as public domain in the USA.

Laozi

Tao Te Ching

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Source: Project Gutenberg eBook #216
Translator: James Legge
Publication note: Public-domain English translation published before modern copyright restrictions.
Copyright note: Project Gutenberg lists this eBook as public domain in the USA.

Confucius

The Analects of Confucius

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Source: Project Gutenberg eBook #3330
Translator: James Legge
Publication note: Public-domain English translation from The Chinese Classics.
Copyright note: Project Gutenberg lists this eBook as public domain in the USA.

Epictetus

Enchiridion

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Source: Project Gutenberg eBook #10661
Translator: George Long
Publication note: The Encheiridion appears in a public-domain George Long translation.
Copyright note: Project Gutenberg lists this eBook as public domain in the USA.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Self-Reliance

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Source: Project Gutenberg eBook #2944
Publication note: Self-Reliance appears in Essays — First Series, first published in 1841.
Copyright note: Project Gutenberg lists this eBook as public domain in the USA.

Henry David Thoreau

Civil Disobedience

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Source: Project Gutenberg eBook #71
Publication note: The essay was first published in 1849 as Resistance to Civil Government.
Copyright note: Project Gutenberg lists this eBook as public domain in the USA.

John Stuart Mill

On Liberty

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Source: Project Gutenberg eBook #34901
Publication note: A public-domain edition of Mill's 1859 essay.
Copyright note: Project Gutenberg lists this eBook as public domain in the USA.

Niccolo Machiavelli

The Prince

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Source: Project Gutenberg eBook #1232
Translator: W. K. Marriott
Publication note: Public-domain English translation of Machiavelli's political treatise.
Copyright note: Project Gutenberg lists this eBook as public domain in the USA.