The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads by Maria Popova

Loneliness, Resilience, and the Right Choice: Poet Diane Ackerman on What She Learned While Working at a Suicide Prevention Hotline
Loneliness, Resilience, and the Right Choice: Poet Diane Ackerman on What She Learned While Working at a Suicide Prevention Hotline

“So often loneliness comes from being out of touch with parts of oneself.”

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Nietzsche on Walking and Creativity
Nietzsche on Walking and Creativity

“Our first questions about the value of a book, of a human being, or a musical composition are: Can they walk? Even more, can they dance?”

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The Importance of Being Scared: Polish Nobel Laureate Wisława Szymborska on Fairy Tales and the Necessity of Fear
The Importance of Being Scared: Polish Nobel Laureate Wisława Szymborska on Fairy Tales and the Necessity of Fear

“Andersen had the courage to write stories with unhappy endings. He didn’t believe that you should try to be good because it pays … but because evil stems from intellectual and emotional stuntedness and is the one form of poverty that should be shunned.”

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Against Brute Force: D.H. Lawrence on the Superpower of Vulnerability
Against Brute Force: D.H. Lawrence on the Superpower of Vulnerability

“Brute force crushes many plants. Yet the plants rise again. The Pyramids will not last a moment compared with the daisy.”

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Ocean of Stars: A Painted Poem About How to Bear the Astonishment of Life
Ocean of Stars: A Painted Poem About How to Bear the Astonishment of Life

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David Bowie on Creativity and His Advice to Artists
David Bowie on Creativity and His Advice to Artists

“It’s terribly dangerous for an artist to fulfill other people’s expectations”

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Mister Rogers on the Most Important Mindset for a Parent
Mister Rogers on the Most Important Mindset for a Parent

“It’s part of being human to fall short of that total acceptance and ultimate understanding — and often far short.”

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Dostoyevsky on What Makes a Good Person
Dostoyevsky on What Makes a Good Person

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The Dandelion and the Meaning of Life: G.K. Chesterton on How to Live in Wonder
The Dandelion and the Meaning of Life: G.K. Chesterton on How to Live in Wonder

Recovering the “forgotten blaze or burst of astonishment at our own existence” alive in the back of our modernity-deadened minds.

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How Do You Know That You Love Somebody? Philosopher Martha Nussbaum’s Incompleteness Theorem of the Heart’s Truth, from Plato to Proust
How Do You Know That You Love Somebody? Philosopher Martha Nussbaum’s Incompleteness Theorem of the Heart’s Truth, from Plato to Proust

“The alternations between love and its denial, suffering and denial of suffering … constitute the most essential and ubiquitous structural feature of the human heart.”

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