The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Search results for “mark twain”

If Apples Had Teeth: Shirley and Milton Glaser’s Lovely Vintage Children’s Book About Questioning the Way Things Are
If Apples Had Teeth: Shirley and Milton Glaser’s Lovely Vintage Children’s Book About Questioning the Way Things Are

An irreverent invitation to reconsider the world’s givens.

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Florence Nightingale Visits a Mosque: The Founder of Modern Nursing on Women, Islam, and Religion’s Power Structures
Florence Nightingale Visits a Mosque: The Founder of Modern Nursing on Women, Islam, and Religion’s Power Structures

“It was so pleasant to see a place where any man may go for a moment’s quiet, and there is none to find fault with him, nor make him afraid.”

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Joan Didion on Learning Not to Mistake Self-Righteousness for Morality
Joan Didion on Learning Not to Mistake Self-Righteousness for Morality

“When we start deceiving ourselves into thinking not that we want something or need something … but that it is a moral imperative that we have it, then is when we join the fashionable madmen.”

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The Emperor of Time: A Dreamlike Short Film About Motion Picture Pioneer Eadweard Muybridge
The Emperor of Time: A Dreamlike Short Film About Motion Picture Pioneer Eadweard Muybridge

A foundational story of modern culture, told from the point of view of an abandoned son and viewed through an antiquated device.

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Havelock Ellis on the Function of Taboos, Their Vital Role in Community, and How They Bolster the Discipline of Compassion
Havelock Ellis on the Function of Taboos, Their Vital Role in Community, and How They Bolster the Discipline of Compassion

“Life is livable because we know that wherever we go most of the people we meet … will allow us the same or nearly the same degree of freedom and privilege that they claim for themselves.”

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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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Trailblazing Astronomer Maria Mitchell on Science, Spirituality, and the Conquest of Truth
Trailblazing Astronomer Maria Mitchell on Science, Spirituality, and the Conquest of Truth

“Every formula which expresses a law of nature is a hymn of praise to God.”

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Genes and the Holy G: Siddhartha Mukherjee on the Dark Cultural History of IQ and Why We Can’t Measure Intelligence
Genes and the Holy G: Siddhartha Mukherjee on the Dark Cultural History of IQ and Why We Can’t Measure Intelligence

“If the history of medical genetics teaches us one lesson, it is [that] genes cannot tell us how to categorize or comprehend human diversity; environments can, cultures can, geographies can, histories can.”

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Don’t Heed the Haters: Albert Einstein’s Wonderful Letter of Support to Marie Curie in the Midst of Scandal
Don’t Heed the Haters: Albert Einstein’s Wonderful Letter of Support to Marie Curie in the Midst of Scandal

“If the rabble continues to occupy itself with you, then simply don’t read that hogwash, but rather leave it to the reptile for whom it has been fabricated.”

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What Makes an Original: Psychologist Adam Grant on the Paradox of Achievement and How Motivated Dissatisfaction Fuels Creativity
What Makes an Original: Psychologist Adam Grant on the Paradox of Achievement and How Motivated Dissatisfaction Fuels Creativity

“The hallmark of originality is rejecting the default and exploring whether a better option exists.”

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