The publication includes folk and author's legends and parables, as well as aphorisms of famous masters of the word, public figures, historians and philosophers from antiquity to the present. The selection of texts corresponds to the current school curriculum, and also includes works for extracurricular reading. The material of the book is divided into three parts, declared in its title. Each of the parts has separate sections. So, legends are divided into "Mythical legends," "Legends of the Cossacks," "Legends of the universe and man," etc. Parables and aphorisms are grouped by theme (knowledge of the world, human virtues and vices, about talent, the price of pleasure, reading, mind, time, wealth, love), etc.