The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Search results for “individuality”

Seamus Heaney’s Advice on Life
Seamus Heaney’s Advice on Life

“The true and durable path into and through experience involves being true … to your own solitude, true to your own secret knowledge.”

read article

Gustav Mahler’s Love Letters to His Wife
Gustav Mahler’s Love Letters to His Wife

“I could sense the bliss that springs from love when one loves with total conviction and knows one’s love to be reciprocated.”

read article

Anam Cara and the Essence of True Friendship: Poet and Philosopher John O’Donohue on the Beautiful Ancient Celtic Notion of Soul-Friend
Anam Cara and the Essence of True Friendship: Poet and Philosopher John O’Donohue on the Beautiful Ancient Celtic Notion of Soul-Friend

“A friend… awakens your life in order to free the wild possibilities within you.”

read article

How Naming Confers Dignity Upon Life and Gives Meaning to Existence
How Naming Confers Dignity Upon Life and Gives Meaning to Existence

“Finding the words is another step in learning to see.”

read article

A Biologist-Turned-Buddhist and His Philosopher Father on the Nature of the Self and the True Measure of Personal Strength
A Biologist-Turned-Buddhist and His Philosopher Father on the Nature of the Self and the True Measure of Personal Strength

“You first need to have an ego in order to be aware that it doesn’t exist.”

read article

Marilynne Robinson on the Humanities, the Limits of Neuroscience, and the Usefulness of the Soul as a Sensemaking Mechanism for Reality
Marilynne Robinson on the Humanities, the Limits of Neuroscience, and the Usefulness of the Soul as a Sensemaking Mechanism for Reality

“A great deal depends, perhaps our humanity depends, on our sensing and acknowledging that quality in our kind we call the soul.”

read article

Ben Hecht on Greatness, the Radiance of Realness, and the Rewards of Keeping in Touch with the Soul of Your Childhood
Ben Hecht on Greatness, the Radiance of Realness, and the Rewards of Keeping in Touch with the Soul of Your Childhood

On the crucial difference between superficial success and true greatness.

read article

Design and Violence: An Intelligent Invitation to Nuanced Discourse in a Culture of Black-and-White Binaries
Design and Violence: An Intelligent Invitation to Nuanced Discourse in a Culture of Black-and-White Binaries

Pause-giving meditations by William Gibson, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Rob Walker, and more.

read article

Emerson on What Beauty Really Means, How to Cultivate Its True Hallmarks, and Why It Bewitches the Human Imagination
Emerson on What Beauty Really Means, How to Cultivate Its True Hallmarks, and Why It Bewitches the Human Imagination

“The secret of ugliness consists not in irregularity, but in being uninteresting.”

read article

Kierkegaard on Popular Opinion, the Petty Jealousies of Criticism, and the Only Cure for Embitterment in Creative Work
Kierkegaard on Popular Opinion, the Petty Jealousies of Criticism, and the Only Cure for Embitterment in Creative Work

“I need the enchantment of creative work to help me forget life’s mean pettinesses.”

read article

View Full Site

The Marginalian participates in the Bookshop.org and Amazon.com affiliate programs, designed to provide a means for sites to earn commissions by linking to books. In more human terms, this means that whenever you buy a book from a link here, I receive a small percentage of its price, which goes straight back into my own colossal biblioexpenses. Privacy policy. (TLDR: You're safe — there are no nefarious "third parties" lurking on my watch or shedding crumbs of the "cookies" the rest of the internet uses.)