The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads by Maria Popova

Technology, Wisdom, and the Difficult Art of Civilizational Self-Awareness: Thomas Merton’s Beautiful Letter of Appreciation to Rachel Carson for Catalyzing the Environmental Movement
Technology, Wisdom, and the Difficult Art of Civilizational Self-Awareness: Thomas Merton’s Beautiful Letter of Appreciation to Rachel Carson for Catalyzing the Environmental Movement

“Technics and wisdom are not by any means opposed. On the contrary, the duty of our age… is to unite them in a supreme humility which will result in a totally self-forgetful creativity and service.”

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Oliver Sacks on the Three Essential Elements of Creativity
Oliver Sacks on the Three Essential Elements of Creativity

“It takes a special energy, over and above one’s creative potential, a special audacity or subversiveness, to strike out in a new direction once one is settled.”

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The Wisdom of Trees: Walt Whitman on What Our Silent Friends Teach Us About Being Rather Than Seeming
The Wisdom of Trees: Walt Whitman on What Our Silent Friends Teach Us About Being Rather Than Seeming

A supreme lesson in authenticity from a being “so innocent and harmless, yet so savage.”

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Love Found: A Diverse Illustrated Collection of Classic Poems Celebrating Desire, Longing, and Devotion
Love Found: A Diverse Illustrated Collection of Classic Poems Celebrating Desire, Longing, and Devotion

“Sit. Feast on your life.”

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Pioneering Education Reformer Elizabeth Peabody on the True Object of Study
Pioneering Education Reformer Elizabeth Peabody on the True Object of Study

The pleasure of meeting the mind at the edge of its aptitude.

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Between Sinew and Spirit: Are You a Body with a Mind or a Mind with a Body?
Between Sinew and Spirit: Are You a Body with a Mind or a Mind with a Body?

An animated journey to the center of the self.

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Carl Sagan on the Power of Books and Reading as the Path to Democracy
Carl Sagan on the Power of Books and Reading as the Path to Democracy

“Books are key to understanding the world and participating in a democratic society.”

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Great Writers on the Letters of the Alphabet, Illustrated by David Hockney
Great Writers on the Letters of the Alphabet, Illustrated by David Hockney

A choral serenade to the building blocks of language starring Susan Sontag, Iris Murdoch, Ian McEwan, Joyce Carol Oates, Martin Amis, Doris Lessing, John Updike, and more titans of literature.

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An Ode to the Number Pi by Nobel-Winning Polish Poet Wisława Szymborska
An Ode to the Number Pi by Nobel-Winning Polish Poet Wisława Szymborska

“…nudging, always nudging a sluggish eternity to continue.”

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Meet Cipe Pineles: The Remarkable Life and Illustrated Recipes of the Forgotten Pioneer Who Blazed the Way for Women in Design and Publishing
Meet Cipe Pineles: The Remarkable Life and Illustrated Recipes of the Forgotten Pioneer Who Blazed the Way for Women in Design and Publishing

A labor of love four years in the making, celebrating a trailblazing woman who shattered multiple glass ceilings.

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