The Marginalian
The Marginalian

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Self-Refinement Through the Wisdom of the Ages: New Year’s Resolutions from Some of Humanity’s Greatest Minds
Self-Refinement Through the Wisdom of the Ages: New Year’s Resolutions from Some of Humanity’s Greatest Minds

Enduring ideas for personal refinement from Seneca, Thoreau, Virginia Woolf, Carl Sagan, Alan Watts, Emerson, Bruce Lee, Maya Angelou, and more.

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Being vs. Becoming: John Steinbeck on Creative Integrity, the Art of Changing Your Mind, the Humanistic Duty of the Artist
Being vs. Becoming: John Steinbeck on Creative Integrity, the Art of Changing Your Mind, the Humanistic Duty of the Artist

“If I can’t do better I have slipped badly… I beat poverty for a good many years and I’ll be damned if I’ll go down at the first little whiff of success.”

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Pioneering Psychologist Jerome Bruner on Art as a Mode of Knowing and Its Four Psychological Aspects
Pioneering Psychologist Jerome Bruner on Art as a Mode of Knowing and Its Four Psychological Aspects

“Whoever reflects recognizes that there are empty and lonely spaces between one’s experiences.”

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The Shortness of Life: Seneca on Busyness and the Art of Living Wide Rather Than Living Long
The Shortness of Life: Seneca on Busyness and the Art of Living Wide Rather Than Living Long

“The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today… The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately.”

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John Lennon and Yoko Ono on Love, Animated
John Lennon and Yoko Ono on Love, Animated

“You’ve got to work on it. It is a precious gift, and it’s a plant, and you’ve got to look after it and water it.”

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John Maeda on Creative Leadership, Talking vs. Making, and Why Human Relationships Are a Work of Craftsmanship
John Maeda on Creative Leadership, Talking vs. Making, and Why Human Relationships Are a Work of Craftsmanship

“You make relationships. One at a time. With the same painstaking attention to craft that you knew as a maker.”

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Amanda Palmer on the Art of Asking and What Thoreau Teaches Us about Accepting Love
Amanda Palmer on the Art of Asking and What Thoreau Teaches Us about Accepting Love

“You’re an artist when you say you are. And you’re a good artist when you make somebody else experience or feel something deep or unexpected.”

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The Little Red Schoolbook: An Honest Vintage Guide to Teenage Sexuality, Education Reform, and Independent Thinking
The Little Red Schoolbook: An Honest Vintage Guide to Teenage Sexuality, Education Reform, and Independent Thinking

“Leaders remain leaders only as long as you let them.”

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The Greatest Commencement Addresses of All Time
The Greatest Commencement Addresses of All Time

Kurt Vonnegut, J.K. Rowling, David Foster Wallace, Patti Smith, Anna Quindlen, Steve Jobs, and more.

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Trying Not to Try: How to Cultivate the Paradoxical Art of Spontaneity Through the Chinese Concept of Wu-Wei
Trying Not to Try: How to Cultivate the Paradoxical Art of Spontaneity Through the Chinese Concept of Wu-Wei

“Our modern conception of human excellence is too often impoverished, cold, and bloodless. Success does not always come from thinking more rigorously or striving harder.”

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