that you were beginning to ask the right questions. "To know what to ask is already to know half." (Durant summarizing Aristotle) Philosophy is the one great conversation in your past that echoes in every conversation since. When will that time come again? "All excellent things are as difficult as they are rare." (Durant summarizing Spinoza) That phenomenon of wonder will return when you open the "Story of Philosophy". A further taste of Durant's warming liquor: "Every science begins as philosophy and ends as art; it arises in hypothesis and flows into achievement." "How many a debate would have been deflated into a paragraph if the disputants had dared to define their terms." "Political science does not make men, but must take them as they come from nature." "The chief condition of happiness, barring certain physical prerequisites, is the life of reason--the specific glory and power of man." Durant's approach is linear in time, but immense in breadth. Beginning with Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, we are not only granted access to their treasure chests of wisdom, we are also given insights into the men. Durant introduces the era before he introduces the philosopher, for humanity inspires humanity, and these giants have benefactors of their own. Durant considers history as important an aspect of philosophy as metaphysics, and here he shines with a polished historian's touch (see Will Durant - "Story of Civilization"). "Athens became a busy mart and port, the meeting place of many races of men and of diverse