Standard Ebooks
@standardebooks.org
Free and liberated ebooks for the true book lover. https://standardebooks.org
"My thoughts, today, at thirty, are these: When full of joys, sorrows are as deep, and the more pain, the greater pleasure. Cut sorrows asunder from joys and I won’t be able to get along. Shall I fling them away? That will make an end of the world."
– Natsume Sōseki,
Kusamakura
– Natsume Sōseki,
Kusamakura
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/natsume-soseki/kusamakura/takahashi-kazutomo
standardebooks.org
October 5, 2026 at 2:02 PM
"My thoughts, today, at thirty, are these: When full of joys, sorrows are as deep, and the more pain, the greater pleasure. Cut sorrows asunder from joys and I won’t be able to get along. Shall I fling them away? That will make an end of the world."
– Natsume Sōseki,
Kusamakura
– Natsume Sōseki,
Kusamakura
What is a book you wanted to hate but won you over?
October 2, 2026 at 1:30 PM
What is a book you wanted to hate but won you over?
“The soul, fortunately, has an interpreter—often an unconscious but still a faithful interpreter—in the eye.”
― Charlotte Brontë,
Jane Eyre
standardebooks.org/ebooks/charl...
― Charlotte Brontë,
Jane Eyre
standardebooks.org/ebooks/charl...
October 1, 2026 at 3:02 PM
“The soul, fortunately, has an interpreter—often an unconscious but still a faithful interpreter—in the eye.”
― Charlotte Brontë,
Jane Eyre
standardebooks.org/ebooks/charl...
― Charlotte Brontë,
Jane Eyre
standardebooks.org/ebooks/charl...
Franz Kafka referenced many books in his work. Here are a few public domain authors and books he was known to love.
Sentimental Education By Gustave Flaubert
The Magic Mountain By Thomas Mann
The Sorrows of Young Werther By J.W. Von Goethe
Short Fiction By Nikolai Gogol
Sentimental Education By Gustave Flaubert
The Magic Mountain By Thomas Mann
The Sorrows of Young Werther By J.W. Von Goethe
Short Fiction By Nikolai Gogol
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks
standardebooks.org
September 30, 2026 at 1:56 PM
Franz Kafka referenced many books in his work. Here are a few public domain authors and books he was known to love.
Sentimental Education By Gustave Flaubert
The Magic Mountain By Thomas Mann
The Sorrows of Young Werther By J.W. Von Goethe
Short Fiction By Nikolai Gogol
Sentimental Education By Gustave Flaubert
The Magic Mountain By Thomas Mann
The Sorrows of Young Werther By J.W. Von Goethe
Short Fiction By Nikolai Gogol
“A million candles have burned themselves out. Still I read on.”
― Not Edgar Allan Poe
While this is a great quote, this isn’t anything Edgar Allan Poe ever wrote. It is usually attributed to Montresor from "The Cask of Amontillado," but it is simply not in the text or in any of Poe’s writings.🕯️
― Not Edgar Allan Poe
While this is a great quote, this isn’t anything Edgar Allan Poe ever wrote. It is usually attributed to Montresor from "The Cask of Amontillado," but it is simply not in the text or in any of Poe’s writings.🕯️
September 29, 2026 at 1:45 PM
“A million candles have burned themselves out. Still I read on.”
― Not Edgar Allan Poe
While this is a great quote, this isn’t anything Edgar Allan Poe ever wrote. It is usually attributed to Montresor from "The Cask of Amontillado," but it is simply not in the text or in any of Poe’s writings.🕯️
― Not Edgar Allan Poe
While this is a great quote, this isn’t anything Edgar Allan Poe ever wrote. It is usually attributed to Montresor from "The Cask of Amontillado," but it is simply not in the text or in any of Poe’s writings.🕯️
“Your hand opens and closes, opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralysed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birds' wings.”
– Rumi
– Rumi
September 28, 2026 at 2:23 PM
“Your hand opens and closes, opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralysed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birds' wings.”
– Rumi
– Rumi
“Cats – by day the most docile of God’s creatures, every one of them in the night enlisting under the devil’s banner – took the place by storm after the human voice had ceased.”
― W.H. Davies,
The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp
― W.H. Davies,
The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp
September 25, 2026 at 3:32 PM
“Cats – by day the most docile of God’s creatures, every one of them in the night enlisting under the devil’s banner – took the place by storm after the human voice had ceased.”
― W.H. Davies,
The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp
― W.H. Davies,
The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp
What's that one book your friends are tired of hearing you talk about?
September 24, 2026 at 6:08 PM
What's that one book your friends are tired of hearing you talk about?
"...autumn — that season of peculiar and inexhaustible influence on the mind of taste and tenderness — that season which has drawn from every poet worthy of being read some attempt at description, or some lines of feeling."
– Jane Austen,
Persuasion
– Jane Austen,
Persuasion
September 23, 2026 at 1:39 PM
"...autumn — that season of peculiar and inexhaustible influence on the mind of taste and tenderness — that season which has drawn from every poet worthy of being read some attempt at description, or some lines of feeling."
– Jane Austen,
Persuasion
– Jane Austen,
Persuasion
“We must ourselves develop the men and women who will faithfully portray the inmost thoughts and feelings of the Negro with all the fire and romance which lie dormant in our history...”
Pauline E. Hopkins,
Contending Forces
standardebooks.org/ebooks/pauli...
Pauline E. Hopkins,
Contending Forces
standardebooks.org/ebooks/pauli...
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/pauline-e-hopkins/contending-forces
standardebooks.org
September 21, 2026 at 6:22 PM
“We must ourselves develop the men and women who will faithfully portray the inmost thoughts and feelings of the Negro with all the fire and romance which lie dormant in our history...”
Pauline E. Hopkins,
Contending Forces
standardebooks.org/ebooks/pauli...
Pauline E. Hopkins,
Contending Forces
standardebooks.org/ebooks/pauli...
“It’s hard to communicate anything exactly and that’s why perfect relationships between people are difficult to find.”
― Gustave Flaubert,
Sentimental Education
standardebooks.org/ebooks/gusta...
― Gustave Flaubert,
Sentimental Education
standardebooks.org/ebooks/gusta...
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/gustave-flaubert/sentimental-education/m-walter-dunne
standardebooks.org
September 19, 2026 at 12:26 AM
“It’s hard to communicate anything exactly and that’s why perfect relationships between people are difficult to find.”
― Gustave Flaubert,
Sentimental Education
standardebooks.org/ebooks/gusta...
― Gustave Flaubert,
Sentimental Education
standardebooks.org/ebooks/gusta...
“There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands away.”
– Emily Dickinson
– Emily Dickinson
September 17, 2026 at 2:44 PM
“There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands away.”
– Emily Dickinson
– Emily Dickinson
"September 15th—This is the month of quiet days, crimson creepers, and blackberries; of mellow afternoons in the ripening garden; of tea under the acacias instead of the too shady beeches; of wood-fires in the library in the chilly evenings."
– Elizabeth von Arnim,
Elizabeth and Her German Garden
– Elizabeth von Arnim,
Elizabeth and Her German Garden
September 15, 2026 at 2:42 PM
"September 15th—This is the month of quiet days, crimson creepers, and blackberries; of mellow afternoons in the ripening garden; of tea under the acacias instead of the too shady beeches; of wood-fires in the library in the chilly evenings."
– Elizabeth von Arnim,
Elizabeth and Her German Garden
– Elizabeth von Arnim,
Elizabeth and Her German Garden
"Music will prove a ladder to the loftier regions of thought; indeed I have long found for myself that I cannot attain to the highest range of my intellectual power except when hearing good music."
John Meade Faulkner,
The Lost Stradivarius
standardebooks.org/ebooks/john-...
John Meade Faulkner,
The Lost Stradivarius
standardebooks.org/ebooks/john-...
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/john-meade-falkner/the-lost-stradivarius
standardebooks.org
September 14, 2026 at 3:28 PM
"Music will prove a ladder to the loftier regions of thought; indeed I have long found for myself that I cannot attain to the highest range of my intellectual power except when hearing good music."
John Meade Faulkner,
The Lost Stradivarius
standardebooks.org/ebooks/john-...
John Meade Faulkner,
The Lost Stradivarius
standardebooks.org/ebooks/john-...
“I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald,
The Great Gatsby
standardebooks.org/ebooks/f-sco...
― F. Scott Fitzgerald,
The Great Gatsby
standardebooks.org/ebooks/f-sco...
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/f-scott-fitzgerald/the-great-gatsby
standardebooks.org
September 11, 2026 at 10:02 PM
“I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald,
The Great Gatsby
standardebooks.org/ebooks/f-sco...
― F. Scott Fitzgerald,
The Great Gatsby
standardebooks.org/ebooks/f-sco...
What is the ultimate "autumn" book?
September 10, 2026 at 2:58 PM
What is the ultimate "autumn" book?
“Examples are more powerful than precepts; hence I quote them.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon,
The Art of Illustration
standardebooks.org/ebooks/c-h-s...
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon,
The Art of Illustration
standardebooks.org/ebooks/c-h-s...
September 9, 2026 at 2:36 PM
“Examples are more powerful than precepts; hence I quote them.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon,
The Art of Illustration
standardebooks.org/ebooks/c-h-s...
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon,
The Art of Illustration
standardebooks.org/ebooks/c-h-s...
“You write not for children but for yourself. And if by good fortune children enjoy what you enjoy, why then you are a writer of children's books.”
― Arthur Ransome
― Arthur Ransome
September 8, 2026 at 1:44 PM
“You write not for children but for yourself. And if by good fortune children enjoy what you enjoy, why then you are a writer of children's books.”
― Arthur Ransome
― Arthur Ransome
“But devils are subservient to certain influences of the stars, because magicians observe the course of certain stars in order to evoke the devils.”
― Heinrich Kramer,
Malleus Maleficarum
standardebooks.org/ebooks/heinr...
― Heinrich Kramer,
Malleus Maleficarum
standardebooks.org/ebooks/heinr...
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/heinrich-kramer/malleus-maleficarum/montague-summers
standardebooks.org
September 4, 2026 at 2:02 PM
“But devils are subservient to certain influences of the stars, because magicians observe the course of certain stars in order to evoke the devils.”
― Heinrich Kramer,
Malleus Maleficarum
standardebooks.org/ebooks/heinr...
― Heinrich Kramer,
Malleus Maleficarum
standardebooks.org/ebooks/heinr...
“Telling a story is like reaching into a granary full of wheat and drawing out a handful. There is always more to tell than can be told.”
― Wendell Berry,
Jayber Crow
― Wendell Berry,
Jayber Crow
September 3, 2026 at 2:48 PM
“Telling a story is like reaching into a granary full of wheat and drawing out a handful. There is always more to tell than can be told.”
― Wendell Berry,
Jayber Crow
― Wendell Berry,
Jayber Crow
"Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.”
― Oscar Wilde
― Oscar Wilde
September 1, 2026 at 6:25 PM
"Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.”
― Oscar Wilde
― Oscar Wilde
“Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.”
– Henry David Thoreau,
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
– Henry David Thoreau,
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
August 31, 2026 at 1:53 PM
“Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.”
– Henry David Thoreau,
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
– Henry David Thoreau,
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
“the house of fiction has...not one window, but a million...every one of which has been pierced, or is still pierceable...by the need of the individual vision and by the pressure of the individual will.”
– Henry James,
The Portrait of a Lady
– Henry James,
The Portrait of a Lady
August 28, 2026 at 1:01 PM
“the house of fiction has...not one window, but a million...every one of which has been pierced, or is still pierceable...by the need of the individual vision and by the pressure of the individual will.”
– Henry James,
The Portrait of a Lady
– Henry James,
The Portrait of a Lady