Reads by Maria Popova

Mushrooms: Cellist Zoë Keating Brings to Life Sylvia Plath’s Poem About the Tenacity of the Creative Spirit

“Our foot’s in the door.”

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Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens: Arthur Rackham’s Haunting Illustrations for the Barrie Classic

“There is almost nothing that has such a keen sense of fun as a fallen leaf.”

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How to Make the Best of Life: A Visionary Victorian Recipe for Lasting Self-Actualization

“Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.”

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Mesmerizing Microphotography of the Hairs of Different Animals Under Polarized Light

A technicolor serenade to the variousness of this world.

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Kahlil Gibran on How Storms Catalyze Creativity

“A storm always awakens whatever passion there is in me. I become eager, and seek relief in work.”

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M.C. Escher on Loneliness, Creativity, and How Rachel Carson Inspired His Art, with a Side of Bach

“A person who is lucidly aware of the miracles that surround him, who has learned to bear up under the loneliness, has made quite a bit of progress on the road to wisdom.”

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The Dark Wood of the Golden Birds: “Goodnight Moon” Author Margaret Wise Brown’s Little-Known Philosophical Children’s Book About Love and Loss

“There had never been such a quiet day before. It was the quietest day in the world.”

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Full Tilt: Dervla Murphy’s Fierce and Poetic Account of Traversing the World on Two Wheels in the 1960s

A wonder-smitten reminder “that for all the horrible chaos of the contemporary political scene this world is full of kindness.”

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Kierkegaard on How to Save Yourself

“I am, in the deepest sense, an unhappy individual who since my earliest days have been nailed fast to some suffering close to insanity.”

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Apple Meditation: John Burroughs on the Portable Philosophy of Humanity’s Favorite Fruit

“I think if I could subsist on you… I should never have an intemperate or ignoble thought, never he feverish or despondent… I should be cheerful, continent, equitable, sweet-blooded, long-lived, and should shed warmths and contentment around.”

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Reads by Maria Popova

“Our foot’s in the door.”

“There is almost nothing that has such a keen sense of fun as a fallen leaf.”

“Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.”

A technicolor serenade to the variousness of this world.

“A storm always awakens whatever passion there is in me. I become eager, and seek relief in work.”

“A person who is lucidly aware of the miracles that surround him, who has learned to bear up under the loneliness, has made quite a bit of progress on the road to wisdom.”

“There had never been such a quiet day before. It was the quietest day in the world.”

A wonder-smitten reminder “that for all the horrible chaos of the contemporary political scene this world is full of kindness.”

“I am, in the deepest sense, an unhappy individual who since my earliest days have been nailed fast to some suffering close to insanity.”

“I think if I could subsist on you… I should never have an intemperate or ignoble thought, never he feverish or despondent… I should be cheerful, continent, equitable, sweet-blooded, long-lived, and should shed warmths and contentment around.”

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