During his days as Harvard's influential president, Charles W. Eliot made a frequent assertion: If you were to spend just 15 minutes a day reading the right books, a quantity that could fit on a five foot shelf, you could give yourself a proper liberal education. The publisher P. F. Collier and Son loved the idea and asked Eliot to assemble the right collection of works. The result wasa 51-volume series published in 1909 called Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf. Later it would simply be called The Harvard Classics.

You can still buy an old set off of eBay for $399. But, just as easily, you can head to the Internet Archive and Project Gutenberg, which have centralized links to every text included in The Harvard Classics (Wealth of Nations, Origin of Species, Plutarch's Lives, the list goes on below). Please note that the previous two links won't give you access to the actual annotated Harvard Classics texts edited by Eliot himself. But if you want just that, you can always click here and get digital scans of the true Harvard Classics. Please note that the first two volumes appear at the bottom of the page. And, in case you want to deepen your liberal education yet further, don't forget to check out our collection 1,500 Free Online Courses from Top Universities. Also spend some time with these other resources: 800 Free eBooks for iPad, Kindle & Other Devices and 1,000 Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free.

A big h/t to @eugenephoto

Texts in the Harvard Classics collection (courtesy of Wikipedia):

Vol. 1: FRANKLIN, WOOLMAN, PENN

His Autobiography, by Benjamin Franklin

The Journal of John Woolman, by John Woolman (1774 and subsequent editions)

Fruits of Solitude, by William Penn

Vol. 2. PLATO, EPICTETUS, MARCUS AURELIUS

The Apology, Phaedo, and Crito, by Plato

The Golden Sayings, by Epictetus

The Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius

Vol. 3. BACON, MILTON'S PROSE, THOS. BROWNE

Essays, Civil and Moral, and New Atlantis, by Francis Bacon

Areopagitica and Tractate of Education, by John Milton

Religio Medici, by Sir Thomas Browne

Vol. 4. COMPLETE POEMS IN ENGLISH, MILTON

Complete poems written in English, by John Milton

Vol. 5. ESSAYS AND ENGLISH TRAITS, EMERSON

Essays and English Traits, by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Vol. 6. POEMS AND SONGS, BURNS

Poems and songs, by Robert Burns

Vol. 7. CONFESSIONS OF ST. AUGUSTINE, IMITATIONS OF CHRIST

The Confessions, by Saint Augustine

The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas á Kempis

Vol. 8. NINE GREEK DRAMAS

Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Furies, and Prometheus Bound, by Aeschylus

Oedipus the King and Antigone, by Sophocles

Hippolytus and The Bacchae, by Euripides

The Frogs, by Aristophanes

Vol. 9. LETTERS AND TREATISES OF CICERO AND PLINY

On Friendship, On Old Age, and letters, by Cicero

Letters, by Pliny the Younger

Vol. 10. WEALTH OF NATIONS, ADAM SMITH

The Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith

Vol. 11. ORIGIN OF SPECIES, DARWIN

The Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin

Vol. 12. PLUTARCH'S LIVES

Lives, by Plutarch

Vol. 13. AENEID, VIRGIL

Aeneid, by Virgil

Vol. 14. DON QUIXOTE, PART 1, CERVANTES

Don Quixote, part 1, by Cervantes

Vol. 15. PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, DONNE & HERBERT, BUNYAN, WALTON

The Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan

The Lives of Donne and Herbert, by Izaak Walton

Vol. 16. THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS

Stories from the Thousand and One Nights

Vol. 17. FOLKLORE AND FABLE, AESOP, GRIMM, ANDERSON

Fables, by Aesop

Children's and Household Tales, by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

Tales, by Hans Christian Andersen

Vol. 18. MODERN ENGLISH DRAMA

All for Love, by John Dryden

The School for Scandal, by Richard Brinsley Sheridan

She Stoops to Conquer, by Oliver Goldsmith

The Cenci, by Percy Bysshe Shelley

A Blot in the 'Scutcheon, by Robert Browning

Manfred, by Lord Byron

Vol. 19. FAUST, EGMONT, ETC. DOCTOR FAUSTUS, GOETHE, MARLOWE

Faust, part 1, Egmont, and Hermann and Dorothea, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Dr. Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe

Vol. 20. THE DIVINE COMEDY, DANTE

The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri

Vol. 21. I PROMESSI SPOSI, MANZONI

I Promessi Sposi, by Alessandro Manzoni

Vol. 22. THE ODYSSEY, HOMER

The Odyssey, by Homer

Vol. 23. TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST, DANA

Two Years Before the Mast, by Richard Henry Dana, Jr.

Vol. 24. ON THE SUBLIME, FRENCH REVOLUTION, ETC., BURKE

On Taste, On the Sublime and Beautiful, Reflections on the French Revolution, and A Letter to a Noble Lord, by Edmund Burke

Vol. 25. AUTOBIOGRAPHY, ETC., ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES, J.S. MILL, T. CARLYLE

Autobiography and On Liberty, by John Stuart Mill

Characteristics, Inaugural Address at Edinburgh, and Sir Walter Scott, by Thomas Carlyle

Vol. 26. CONTINENTAL DRAMA

Life is a Dream, by Pedro Calderón de la Barca

Polyeucte, by Pierre Corneille

Phèdre, by Jean Racine

Tartuffe, by Molière

Minna von Barnhelm, by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

William Tell, by Friedrich von Schiller

Vol. 27. ENGLISH ESSAYS: SIDNEY TO MACAULAY

Vol. 28. ESSAYS: ENGLISH AND AMERICAN

Vol. 29. VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE, DARWIN

The Voyage of the Beagle, by Charles Darwin

Vol. 30. FARADAY, HELMHOLTZ, KELVIN, NEWCOMB, ETC

The Forces of Matter and The Chemical History of a Candle, by Michael Faraday

On the Conservation of Force and Ice and Glaciers, by Hermann von Helmholtz

The Wave Theory of Light and The Tides, by Lord Kelvin

The Extent of the Universe, by Simon Newcomb

Geographical Evolution, by Sir Archibald Geikie

Vol. 31. AUTOBIOGRAPHY, BENVENUTO CELLINI

The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini

Vol. 32. LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL ESSAYS

Essays, by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

Montaigne and What is a Classic?, by Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve

The Poetry of the Celtic Races, by Ernest Renan

The Education of the Human Race, by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of Man, by Friedrich von Schiller

Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals, by Immanuel Kant

Byron and Goethe, by Giuseppe Mazzini

Vol. 33. VOYAGES AND TRAVELS

An account of Egypt from The Histories, by Herodotus

Germany, by Tacitus

Sir Francis Drake Revived, by Philip Nichols

Sir Francis Drake's Famous Voyage Round the World, by Francis Pretty

Drake's Great Armada, by Captain Walter Bigges

Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to Newfoundland, by Edward Haies

The Discovery of Guiana, by Sir Walter Raleigh

Vol. 34. FRENCH AND ENGLISH PHILOSOPHERS, DESCARTES, VOLTAIRE, ROUSSEAU, HOBBES

Discourse on Method, by René Descartes

Letters on the English, by Voltaire

On the Inequality among Mankind and Profession of Faith of a Savoyard Vicar, by Jean Jacques Rousseau

Of Man, Being the First Part of Leviathan, by Thomas Hobbes

Vol. 35. CHRONICLE AND ROMANCE, FROISSART, MALORY, HOLINSHEAD

Chronicles, by Jean Froissart

The Holy Grail, by Sir Thomas Malory

A Description of Elizabethan England, by William Harrison

Vol. 36. MACHIAVELLI, MORE, LUTHER

The Prince, by Niccolò Machiavelli

The Life of Sir Thomas More, by William Roper

Utopia, by Sir Thomas More

The Ninety-Five Theses, To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, and On the Freedom of a Christian, by Martin Luther

Vol. 37. LOCKE, BERKELEY, HUME

Some Thoughts Concerning Education, by John Locke

Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous in Opposition to Sceptics and Atheists, by George Berkeley

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, by David Hume

Vol. 38. HARVEY, JENNER, LISTER, PASTEUR

The Oath of Hippocrates

Journeys in Diverse Places, by Ambroise Paré

On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals, by William Harvey

The Three Original Publications on Vaccination Against Smallpox, by Edward Jenner

The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever, by Oliver Wendell Holmes

On the Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgery, by Joseph Lister

Scientific papers, by Louis Pasteur

Scientific papers, by Charles Lyell

Vol. 39. FAMOUS PREFACES

Vol. 40. ENGLISH POETRY 1: CHAUCER TO GRAY

Vol. 41. ENGLISH POETRY 2: COLLINS TO FITZGERALD

Vol. 42. ENGLISH POETRY 3: TENNYSON TO WHITMAN

Vol. 43. AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS

Vol. 44. SACRED WRITINGS 1

Confucian: The sayings of Confucius

Hebrew: Job, Psalms, and Ecclesiastes

Christian I: Luke and Acts

Vol. 45. SACRED WRITINGS 2

Christian II: Corinthians I and II and hymns

Buddhist: Writings

Hindu: The Bhagavad-Gita

Mohammedan: Chapters from the Koran

Vol. 46. ELIZABETHAN DRAMA 1

Edward the Second, by Christopher Marlowe

Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, and The Tempest, by William Shakespeare

Vol. 47. ELIZABETHAN DRAMA 2

The Shoemaker's Holiday, by Thomas Dekker

The Alchemist, by Ben Jonson

Philaster, by Beaumont and Fletcher

The Duchess of Malfi, by John Webster

A New Way to Pay Old Debts, by Philip Massinger

Vol. 48. THOUGHTS AND MINOR WORKS, PASCAL

Thoughts, letters, and minor works, by Blaise Pascal

Vol. 49. EPIC AND SAGA

Beowulf

The Song of Roland

The Destruction of Dá Derga's Hostel

The Story of the Volsungs and Niblungs

Vol. 50. INTRODUCTION, READER'S GUIDE, INDEXES

Vol. 51. LECTURES

The last volume contains sixty lectures introducing and summarizing the covered fields: history, poetry, natural science, philosophy, biography, prose fiction, criticism and the essay, education, political science, drama, travelogues, and religion.