The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Search results for “Oliver Sacks gratitude”

Elizabeth Bishop on Why Everyone Should Experience at Least One Long Period of Solitude in Life
Elizabeth Bishop on Why Everyone Should Experience at Least One Long Period of Solitude in Life

Wisdom on the rhythms of creativity from a lighthouse daydream.

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How to Treat the Symptoms of a Rising Reputation: David Hume on the Only Adequate Response to Haters
How to Treat the Symptoms of a Rising Reputation: David Hume on the Only Adequate Response to Haters

On choosing the turn of mind that expands your happiness rather than contracting it.

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Advice from My 80-Year-Old Self: An Artist’s Bittersweet Legacy of Real Wisdom from Strangers Ages 7 to 88
Advice from My 80-Year-Old Self: An Artist’s Bittersweet Legacy of Real Wisdom from Strangers Ages 7 to 88

“Nothing will be what you expected.”

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Donald Hall on Growing Old and Our Cultural Attitude Toward the Elderly
Donald Hall on Growing Old and Our Cultural Attitude Toward the Elderly

“When kindness to the old is condescending, it is aware of itself as benignity while it asserts its power.”

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The Best Science Books of 2015
The Best Science Books of 2015

From Earth’s largest-hearted creature to the interconnectedness of the universe, by way of Einstein and artificial intelligence.

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André Gide on Growing Happier as We Grow Older and Using Mortality as a Mobilizing Force for Creative Work
André Gide on Growing Happier as We Grow Older and Using Mortality as a Mobilizing Force for Creative Work

“Age cannot manage to empty either sensual pleasure of its attractiveness or the whole world of its charm.”

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Einstein on Grief, Time, Eternity, and the Privilege of Old Age: His Beautiful Letter to the Bereaved Queen of Belgium
Einstein on Grief, Time, Eternity, and the Privilege of Old Age: His Beautiful Letter to the Bereaved Queen of Belgium

“…and Mozart remains as beautiful and tender as he always was and always will be.”

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When Breath Becomes Air: A Young Neurosurgeon Examines the Meaning of Life as He Faces His Death
When Breath Becomes Air: A Young Neurosurgeon Examines the Meaning of Life as He Faces His Death

“When you come to one of the many moments in life where you must give an account of yourself, provide a ledger of what you have been, and done, and meant to the world…”

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The 15 Best Books of 2015
The 15 Best Books of 2015

Rewarding reflections on time, love, loss, courage, creativity, and other transformations of the heart.

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The Art of Self-Culture and the Crucial Difference Between Being Educated and Being Cultured: John Cowper Powys’s Forgotten Wisdom from 1929
The Art of Self-Culture and the Crucial Difference Between Being Educated and Being Cultured: John Cowper Powys’s Forgotten Wisdom from 1929

“The art of self-culture begins with a deeper awareness … of the marvel of our being alive at all; alive in a world as startling and mysterious, as lovely and horrible, as the one we live in.”

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