Honeysuckle Walks
a literature & philosophy blog
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Slowness: Milan Kundera on pleasure and memory
At around 130 pages, Milan Kundera’s seventh novel Slowness (1995) is concise, unusual, and compelling.
Schopenhauer on aesthetics and the goal of art
Widely recognized as one of the world’s most pessimistic philosophers, Arthur Schopenhauer is mainly known for his views on suffering.
Schopenhauer on the human condition and original sin
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 – 1860) was an influential German philosopher who, despite providing the foundation for much of modern philosophy, died in relative obscurity.
5 of the best philosophy-related books
Philosophers think about the most important questions in life–everything from how to face death gracefully…
Aristotle’s horror vacui and the vacuum law of prosperity
In her book Dynamic Laws of Prosperity, Catherine Ponder introduces various laws that govern reality. One of these is the vacuum law of prosperity…
Timeless quotes from Steppenwolf
In an author’s note for the 1961 edition of Steppenwolf, Hermann Hesse described the novel as his most “violently misunderstood” work…
The philosophy of beauty
Nowadays, most people don’t attach a larger significance to beauty. At most, beauty is a quality that evokes pleasure…
Seneca on anger
Anger is like stepping into quicksand. The angrier you get, the more damage you inflict upon yourself; just as the more…
Nietzsche’s eternal return
Friedrich Nietzsche claimed his doctrine of eternal return was his most important idea, the “greatest elevation of the consciousness…
Marcus Aurelius on gratitude
Marcus Aurelius was the last emperor of the Pax Romana, a period of peace and stability for the Roman Empire. He was also a Stoic…
Aristotle and Seneca on friendship and isolation
Friendship was an important topic to Greek philosophers. Aristotle devoted 1/5th of his main work on ethics, Nicomachean Ethics…
Old lessons on learning and wisdom from Siddhartha
Siddhartha is a beautifully written spiritual novel by Hermann Hesse about a Nepalese man's journey of self-discovery and search for…
The philosophy of love
"The parched earth loves the rain / And the high heaven, with moisture laden, loves / Earthwards to fall." - Euripides
Seneca on time
Time is invaluable: it's finite, we don't know how much of it we have and we can never get it back. Yet it's easy to forget its value.
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 – 1860) was an influential German philosopher who, despite providing the foundation for much of modern philosophy, died in relative obscurity.