What is the origin of the idiom playing fast and loose? a juggling trick using ropes performed in Roman times a Medieval cheating game involving sticks and belts the sordid sale of indulgences in the Catholic Church Playing Fast and Loose invites the reader to guess the correct origin of common idioms. For each of the fifty idioms, three scenarios have been constructed. One scenario contains a short description of the likely origin of the phrase with some selected historical context that i...

How do children develop emotional intelligence? How do parents improve their ability to relate to others? How can parents and children think more creatively? What Do We Do? Questions on Psychology and Education for Parents addresses these questions and many more with insightful and entertaining articles. Dr. Michael K. Smith, an educational psychologist, and Dr. Kathryn R. Smith, a forensic psychologist, bring different perspectives to these issues of parenting and education. These article...

American poet Emily Dickinson is revered around the world, and influenced many feminist artists and writers. Her work is some of the best known and most quoted or adapted:'Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all' Emily DickinsonDickinson received a very good education, but chose to return home to Amherst, Massachusetts, where she spent the rest of her life, writing more than a p...

**#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Experience the book that started the Quiet Movement and revolutionized how the world sees introverts—and how introverts see themselves—by offering validation, inclusion, and inspiration“Superbly researched, deeply insightful, and a fascinating read, Quiet is an indispensable resource for anyone who wants to understand the gifts of the introverted half of the population.”—Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project**

This unique memoir of reading the classics to find strength and wisdom "makes an elegant case for literature as an everyday companion" ( The New York Times Book Review).While undergoing a series of personal and family crises, Christopher R. Beha discovered that his grandmother had used the Harvard Classics—the renowned "five foot shelf" of great world literature compiled in the early twentieth century by Charles William Eliot—to educate herself during the ...

#1 Wall Street Journal Best SellerWinner of the Thinkers50 Breakthrough Idea AwardAmazon Best Book of the YearForbes Recommended Books for LeadersTED Talk sensation—over 12 million views!The counterintuitive approach to achieving your true potential, heralded by the Harvard Business Review as a groundbreaking idea of the year.

Self-Reliance is an 1841 essay written by American transcendentalist philosopher and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains a stirring call for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and to follow their own instincts and ideas. It contains one of Emerson's most famous quotations: A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. The essay, possibly Emerson's most famous, is an analysis into the nature of ...

Your Perfect Right—the leading assertiveness guide with over 1.3 million copies sold—is now fully updated and revised. This indispensable guide to equal-relationship assertiveness is packed with step-by-step exercises, tips, and skills to help you express yourself effectively.Are you comfortable starting a conversation with strangers at a party? Do you sometimes feel ineffective in making your needs clear? Do you have difficulty saying no to persuasive peo...

“The first thing we have to say respecting what are called new views here in New England, at the present time, is, that they are not new, but the very oldest of thoughts cast into the mould of these new times. The light is always identical in its composition, but it falls on a great variety of objects, and by so falling is first revealed to us, not in its own form, for it is formless, but in theirs; in like manner, thought only appears in the objects it classifies. ”—FROM THE BOOK

**Audible Best Seller of 2017Inc. 11 Great Business BooksNew York Magazine Best Psychology BooksLinkedIn's 12 Books on Leadership to ReadTwo mavericks in the field of positive psychology deliver a timely message**Happiness experts have long told us to tune out our negative emotions and focus instead on mindfulness, positivity, and optimism. Researchers Todd Kashdan, Ph.D., and Robert Biswas-Diener, Dr. Philos., dis...

As the digital age settles on us and the ebook revolution dawns, the question of why we read to begin with is often forgotten. Who better to turn to for guidance on this question than the man who sought refuge in the simple things we often take for granted, Henry David Thoreau. His thoughts on reading are as relevant in the eBook era as they were in the age of the locomotive.Princeton Shorts are brief selections excerpted from influential Princeton University Press publications pro...

Circles is an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson, first published in 1841. The essay reflects on the vast array of circles one may find throughout nature, and what is suggested by these circles in philosophical terms. In the opening line of the essay Emerson states The eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout nature this primary figure is repeated without end.