A 14th-century North-African scholar of Islam explained ways of seeing the past and learning from it… What is history? A screenshot of events in time? Not so fast. In A Brief History of History, Colin Wells lays out how we have come to know and study history. History is not…

“There is something in the nature of tea that leads us into a world of quiet contemplation of life.” ― Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living Everyone has their favorite thing. Mine is a cup of tea. Sometimes, everyday ordinary things can teach us more about life than a pile…

Have you ever made a paper boat? Where you fold a standard size paper, and draw out the edges to assemble a boat without touching any scissor or glue or tape. I used to make that boat as a kid. And sail it around in the monsoon after which I…

In February 2013, the Islamist militants in Syria destroyed the statue of the eleventh-century classic Arabic poet Abu Ala Al Ma’arri. …

These old folk short stories are simply braingasmic… “No matter how smart you are, you’re smarter if you take the easy ways when they are available.” ― Daniel C. Dennett, Intuition Pumps And Other Tools for Thinking I am going to present a cliche. Thinking. is. hard. That’s weird, right…

The 20th century acclaimed author of absurd stories hid many discomforting truths about the human condition… — “A fine wound is all I brought into the world” — From A Country’s Doctor Franz Kafka is called many things. The Atlantic described him as ‘cripplingly indecisive, terrified by life, obsessed with death.’ Elsewhere, he is referred to as ‘a deeply tormented soul, a lover of torture, a sadomasochist…

You might be reading books wrong… — Reading fast has become the new flex. Take it from the self-help guru Tai Lopez whose TEDx Talk, Why I Read A Book A Day (And Why You Should Too) has gained over 11 million views on YouTube. …

The difficult art of living coherently in an age full of contradictions… — It is your job to comport yourself humbly and to consistently hew to your moral ideals. Cling to what you know in your heart is best — Epictetus In the classic masterpiece, War and Peace, the protagonist Pierre Bezukhov goes through a tough life. No, he is not poor. No…

Umberto Eco’s essay, On Beauty, is an absolutely stunning guide to Western Art — You got to believe me. I am one of those people who say that ‘they know absolutely nothing about art.’ Not only that but I am also certainly one of those people who say ‘that they know absolutely nothing about Western art in particular.’ Growing up in a conservative Muslim…