The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Search results for “John steinbeck”

Thomas Mann on Justice, Human Dignity, and Why We Must Keep Revising and Renewing Our Ideals
Thomas Mann on Justice, Human Dignity, and Why We Must Keep Revising and Renewing Our Ideals

“To come close to art means to come close to life, and if an appreciation of the dignity of man is the moral definition of democracy, then its psychological definition arises out of its determination to reconcile and combine knowledge and art, mind and life, thought and deed.”

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Against Common Sense: Vladimir Nabokov on the Wellspring of Wonder and Why the Belief in Goodness Is a Moral Obligation
Against Common Sense: Vladimir Nabokov on the Wellspring of Wonder and Why the Belief in Goodness Is a Moral Obligation

“This capacity to wonder at trifles — no matter the imminent peril — these asides of the spirit, these footnotes in the volume of life are the highest forms of consciousness, and it is in this childishly speculative state of mind, so different from commonsense and its logic, that we know the world to be good.”

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Anton Chekhov’s 6 Rules for a Great Story
Anton Chekhov’s 6 Rules for a Great Story

Mastering the essential complementarity of compassion and total objectivity.

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An Illustrated Meditation on the Many Meanings and Manifestation of Love
An Illustrated Meditation on the Many Meanings and Manifestation of Love

“The man in rags outside the subway station plays love notes that lift into the sky like tiny beacons of light.”

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Zadie Smith on Optimism and Despair
Zadie Smith on Optimism and Despair

“Progress is never permanent, will always be threatened, must be redoubled, restated and reimagined if it is to survive.”

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Favorite Books of 2018
Favorite Books of 2018

The anatomy of feeling, the science of psychedelics, Ursula K. Le Guin’s final poetry collection, arresting essays by Zadie Smith, Rebecca Solnit, Anne Lamott, and Audre Lorde, a physicist’s lyrical meditation on science and spirituality, and more.

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George Sand’s Only Children’s Book: A Touching Parable of Choosing Kindness and Generosity Over Cynicism and Greed, with Stunning Illustrations by Russian Artist Gennady Spirin
George Sand’s Only Children’s Book: A Touching Parable of Choosing Kindness and Generosity Over Cynicism and Greed, with Stunning Illustrations by Russian Artist Gennady Spirin

“It is written in the book of destiny that any mortal who dedicates himself to doing good must risk everything, including life itself.”

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Kahlil Gibran on the Courage to Weather the Uncertainties of Love
Kahlil Gibran on the Courage to Weather the Uncertainties of Love

“Think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.”

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Pioneering Jamaican-American Illustrator and Designer Jacqueline Ayer’s Lovely Vintage Children’s Book About Loss, Hope, and Homecoming, Inspired by Thailand
Pioneering Jamaican-American Illustrator and Designer Jacqueline Ayer’s Lovely Vintage Children’s Book About Loss, Hope, and Homecoming, Inspired by Thailand

“In a sunny, sleepy place halfway around the world in Siam, on the banks of a long brown river, there once lived a little boy whose name was Nu Dang.”

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Inner Sanity Amid World Chaos: The Young Alan Watts on What Makes the Human Struggle Bearable, in a Touching Letter to His Parents
Inner Sanity Amid World Chaos: The Young Alan Watts on What Makes the Human Struggle Bearable, in a Touching Letter to His Parents

From the abyss of WWII, an elevating reminder that we each contain a universe within that contributes to the universe without.

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