- Code of Hammurabi, c. 1780 BCE (Audio) (Alternate)
- Instructions of Ptah-Hotep, c. 23rd c. bce
- Tales of Prince Setna
- Analects of Confucius, 5c bce
- Herodotus, On the Customs Of the Persians, c. 430 bce
- Herodotus, Persian Invasion and Thermypolae, c. 430 bce
- Thucydides, The Funeral Oration of Pericles, 431 bce
- Thucydides, The Melian Dialogue, 431 bce.
- Kautilya’s Arthashastra, 4c bce
- Hesiod, Theogeny,
- Ban Zhao, On Women, 1c ce
- Plutarch, Lives
- Polybius, on Roman Government
- Sources on Roman Slavery
- Confucius, Analects (Waley Translation)
- The Confucian Great Learning
- Human Nature: Mencius v. Xunzi
- Buddha’s First Sermon, Vow of the Bodhisattva
- Justinian, Corpus Iuris Civilis: Institutes, 535
- Justinian, Corpus Iuris Civilis: The Digest and Codex on Marriage, 535
- Prince Shotoku’s 17-Article Constitution, 604
- Quran:
- MH Shakir translation: Surahs 1 and 2 (early 20c)
- Talal Itani, Clear Quran: https://www.clearquran.com/
- The Noble Quran (multiple translations): https://quran.com/
- Al-Tanûkhî: Ruminations and Reminiscences, c. 980 CE
- Ibn Khaldun, introduction to The Muqaddimah, 14c.
- Omar Khayyam (d. 1123 CE): The Rubaiyat, c. 1120
- English Magna Carta (1215), Magna Carta (1215, 1216, 1225), and Magna Carta (1279)
- Machiavelli’s The Prince (1513)
- Chapter IX, “Concerning A Civil Principality”
- Chapter XVII, “Concerning Cruelty And Clemency, And Whether It Is Better To Be Loved Than Feared”
- Chapter XXVI, “An Exhortation To Liberate Italy From The Barbarians”
- The mid-16th century Turkish Letters of Ogier Ghiselen de Busbecq
- The Edicts of Kangxi, 1670
- Kaibara Ekken: Greater Learning for Women (1762)
- The 1689 English Bill of Rights
- French Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen
- Olympe de Gouges, The Declaration of the Rights of Woman (September 1791)
- US Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States
- Marx and Engles, The Commnist Manifesto (1848)
- John Stuart Mill: On Liberty (1859)
- Japan’s Meiji Constitution (1889)
- Rudyard Kipling, The White Man’s Burden (1899)
- Japan’s 1947 Constitution
- Hitler’s 25 Points and Mussolini’s What is Fascism?
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights