Some books that I like

• The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White.
• A handbook for Scholars, by Marie-Claire van Leunen.
• The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams.
• The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov.
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain.
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Robert Cialdini.
• Economics in one lesson, by Henry Hazlitt.
• How to Lie With Statistics, by Darrell Huff, and Irving Geis

Some speeches/essays/letters that I like

• Cargo cult science by Richard Feynman.
• Ten lessons I wish I had been taught by Gian-Carlo Rota.
• You and Your Research by Richard Hamming
• The bulk of all human utterances is plagiarism Mark Twain's letter to Helen Keller.
• Politics and the english language by George Orwell.
• How to write with style by Kurt Vonnegut.
• Richard von Weizsacker's speech.
• My speech to the Graduages by Peter Norvig.
• What should I do with my life? by Po Bronson.
• Warning Signs in Experimental Design and Interpretation by Peter Norvig.
• Some tips Joseph Brodsky's commencemet speech at University of Michigan in 1988.
• Kenyon College commencement speech 2005 by David Foster Wallace.
• Following Benford's Law, or Looking Out for No. 1 by Malcolm W. Browne. A good explanation of Benford's law.
• Wonderful letter discussing a suggested idiosyncratic reform. -- Source (http://www.lettersofnote.com/)
• Letter correspondence between a parent and the eminent physicst Richard Feynman.
• Professor Albert Bartlett's video explaining why "Sustainable Growth" is a contradiction.
• Wisdom of the Stoics by Henry Hazlitt.
• How to live on 24 hours a day by Arnold Bennett.
• A Mathematician's Lament by Paul Lockhart.
• How to read Academic Articles a blog post by William Spaniel
• The Tail End. A great blog post about how little time we really have to do meaningful things in our lives.
• Solitude and Leadership. William Deresiewicz's lecture at the United States Military Academy.