Curated playlist
Rhetoric theorists
- George OrwellGeorge Orwell was a pen name, chosen from a shortlist in 1932. He was born Eric Arthur Blair in British India.
- PlatoPlato never speaks in his own voice in his dialogues. Socrates does the talking in every one but the Laws.
- AristotleOnly around a third of Aristotle's original writings survive, and none was meant to be published.
- Augustine of HippoAugustine of Hippo once prayed, "Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet."
- John MiltonJohn Milton sold Paradise Lost for five pounds. The blind poet handed it to a publisher in April 1667.
- Michel FoucaultMichel Foucault's surgeon father expected him to become a surgeon too. He became a leading thinker on power instead.
- QuintilianIn 1416, the scholar Poggio Bracciolini found a complete copy of a lost Roman masterpiece in the Abbey of Saint Gall. It was the work of Quintilian, a teacher of public speaking whose full name was Marcus Fabius Quintilianus. Poggio found…
- ProtagorasDid Athens really burn the books of the philosopher Protagoras in the marketplace?
- Francis BaconFrancis Bacon may have died after stuffing a hen with snow. He wanted to test if cold could preserve meat like salt.
- Dionysius of HalicarnassusDionysius of Halicarnassus argued that the Romans were descended from Greeks.
- Edward GibbonEdward Gibbon said commanding militia grenadiers helped him understand the Roman legion.
- Juan Luis VivesJuan Luis Vives wrote the first Western tract arguing that the state must help the urban poor.