本书并不收录人文学科的研究著述，也不是罗列或展示当今社会中的万千气象。该书旨在引领读者避开当下喧嚣和浮躁的氛围，进入一种冷静的人文思考。

本书收录的文章主题重经典意义和收藏价值。内容涉及伦理道德、宗教习俗、婚姻家庭、人际关系、大众文化、人文修养、心理健康、语言文学、经济政治、哲学美学等。写作体裁不限，包括议论文、散文、短篇自传、随笔、短篇小说等。每篇选文读来或是温馨甜蜜，或是发人深思，或是深情隽永，或是诙谐幽默，具有驱恶趋善，规谏或激励人生的精神作用。

1.Disintroductions

2.The Road to Success

3.Thanksgiving

4.Hidden Pennies

5.Moral Perfection

6.The Ephemera.An Emblem of Human Life

7.The Handsome and Deformed Leg

8.Trust Yourself.You Know More than　You Think You Do

9.How to Deal with People

10.Education (Ⅰ)

11.Education (Ⅱ)

12.Listening

13.A Message to Garcia

14.Sinking the Relationship

15.Learning to Read and Write

16.Three Days to See

17.The Education of Henry Adams

18.Love Your Life

19.Solitude

20.My Days

21.The Writing of English

22.The Pathless Profession (Ⅰ)

23.The Pathless Profession (Ⅱ)

24.Hawthorne and His Mosses

25.Notes of a Native Son

26.A Discussion of Feminine Types (Ⅰ)

27.A Discussion of Feminine Types (Ⅱ)

28.Stop Murdering the Language

29.One Small Life

30.The Truth about Lying (Ⅰ)

31.The Truth about Lying (Ⅱ)

32.A Man Who Had No Eyes

33.At the Mercy of the Cure

34.Mont Blanc

35.The Ways of Meeting Oppression (Ⅰ)

36.The Ways of Meeting Oppression (II)

37.The Promised Land ~

38.The Rewards of Living a Solitary Life

39.A Lesson in Living

40.The Teacher Who Changed My Life

41.Pain Is Not the Ultimate Enemy

42.Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death

43.Circles

44 Gifts

45 Nature

46 Beauty(I)

47 Beauty(II)

48 Spirit

49 Art

50.The American Scholar (I)

51.The American Scholar (II)

52.Divinity School Address (I)

53.Divinity School Address (II)

54.Literary Ethics (I)

55.Literary Ethics (II)

56.Self-Reliance

57.Daddy Tucked the Blanket (I)

58.Daddy Tucked the Blanket (II)

59.The Plot Against People

60.Every Man's Natural Desire to Be Somebody Else (I)

61.Every Man's Natural Desire to Be Somebody Else (II)

62.What Is an American?

63.Beauty

64.Neat People vs.Sloppy People

65.Some Self-Analysis

66.The Strenuous Life

67.The Crisis (I)

68.The Crisis (II)

69.Upon Receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature

70.Bovine and Human Happiness

71.Why I Write

72.How It Feels to Be Colored Me (I)

73.How It Feels to Be Colored Me (II)