The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads by Maria Popova

The Wild Iris: Nobel Laureate Louise Glück on the Door at the End of Your Suffering
The Wild Iris: Nobel Laureate Louise Glück on the Door at the End of Your Suffering

“Whatever returns from oblivion returns to find a voice.”

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How to Bear Your Sorrows: Nick Cave on Integrating the Darkness of Loss with the Bright Ongoingness of Life
How to Bear Your Sorrows: Nick Cave on Integrating the Darkness of Loss with the Bright Ongoingness of Life

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The Four Buddhist Mantras for Turning Fear into Love
The Four Buddhist Mantras for Turning Fear into Love

“When you love someone, the best thing you can offer that person is your presence.”

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How to Get Love Less Wrong: George Saunders on Breaking the Patterns that Break Our Hearts
How to Get Love Less Wrong: George Saunders on Breaking the Patterns that Break Our Hearts

“We want to believe that love is singular and exclusive, and it unnerves us to think that it might actually be renewable…”

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How to Grow Old: Bertrand Russell on What Makes a Fulfilling Life
How to Grow Old: Bertrand Russell on What Makes a Fulfilling Life

“Make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life.”

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Marcus Aurelius on the Good Luck of Your Bad Luck: The Stoic Strategy for Weathering Life’s Waves and Turning Suffering into Strength
Marcus Aurelius on the Good Luck of Your Bad Luck: The Stoic Strategy for Weathering Life’s Waves and Turning Suffering into Strength

“What happened could have happened to anyone, but not everyone could have carried on.”

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Diseases of the Will: Neuroscience Founding Father Santiago Ramón y Cajal on the Six Psychological Flaws That Keep the Gifted from Living Up to Their Gift
Diseases of the Will: Neuroscience Founding Father Santiago Ramón y Cajal on the Six Psychological Flaws That Keep the Gifted from Living Up to Their Gift

“Our neurons must be used … not only to know but also to transform knowledge; not only to experience but also to construct.”

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Fernando Pessoa on Unselfing into Who You Really Are
Fernando Pessoa on Unselfing into Who You Really Are

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How to Help Someone Change: The Samurai Guide to Giving Feedback
How to Help Someone Change: The Samurai Guide to Giving Feedback

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How to Spot and How to Stop a Liar: Hannah Arendt on Deception, Self-Deception, and the Psychology of Defactualization
How to Spot and How to Stop a Liar: Hannah Arendt on Deception, Self-Deception, and the Psychology of Defactualization

“No matter how large the tissue of falsehood that an experienced liar has to offer, it will never be large enough … to cover the immensity of factuality.”

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