The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads from October 2016

The Courage to Despair: Goethe, the Inner Tension of Creativity, and What It Takes to Be a Great Artist
The Courage to Despair: Goethe, the Inner Tension of Creativity, and What It Takes to Be a Great Artist

“[The artist] must be shaken by the naked truths that will not be comforted. This divine discontent, this disequilibrium, this state of inner tension is the source of artistic energy.”

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How Libraries Save Lives
How Libraries Save Lives

One woman’s story of how a bookmobile transported her away from a deadly life and toward her human potential.

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The Secret Life of Smell and What Dogs Can Teach Us About Accessing Hidden Layers of Reality
The Secret Life of Smell and What Dogs Can Teach Us About Accessing Hidden Layers of Reality

“To follow animals is to become more attuned to our own existence.”

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Leonard Bernstein on Cynicism, Instant Gratification, and Why Paying Attention Is a Countercultural Act of Courage and Resistance
Leonard Bernstein on Cynicism, Instant Gratification, and Why Paying Attention Is a Countercultural Act of Courage and Resistance

“There is so much inherent goodness in people that if they aren’t inhibited by traumas and are given half a chance, it shines through.”

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Mozart and Haydn’s Beautiful, Selfless Friendship
Mozart and Haydn’s Beautiful, Selfless Friendship

“If I could only impress on the soul of every friend of music, and on high personages in particular, how inimitable are Mozart’s works, how profound, how musically intelligent, how extraordinarily sensitive!”

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When Debate Is Futile: Bertrand Russell’s Remarkable Response to a Fascist’s Provocation
When Debate Is Futile: Bertrand Russell’s Remarkable Response to a Fascist’s Provocation

“The emotional universes we inhabit are so distinct, and in deepest ways opposed, that nothing fruitful or sincere could ever emerge from association between us.”

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Rilke on Writing and What It Takes to Be an Artist
Rilke on Writing and What It Takes to Be an Artist

“Go into yourself and test the deeps in which your life takes rise; at its source you will find the answer to the question whether you must create.”

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Broadcasters of the Self: Ian McEwan on Our Age of Identity and How the Politics of Modern Selfhood Imperils the Art of Listening
Broadcasters of the Self: Ian McEwan on Our Age of Identity and How the Politics of Modern Selfhood Imperils the Art of Listening

“When you make the self the outer limit of your politics, you then begin to ignore a great deal of the attitudes, situations, dilemmas, misery of others.”

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