The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Search results for “individuality”

Crowds and Power: Nobel Laureate Elias Canetti on the Four Attributes of Crowds and the Paradox of Why We Join Them
Crowds and Power: Nobel Laureate Elias Canetti on the Four Attributes of Crowds and the Paradox of Why We Join Them

“Direction is essential for the continuing existence of the crowd… A crowd exists so long as it has an unattained goal.”

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Kierkegaard on Nonconformity, the Individual vs. the Crowd, and the Power of the Minority
Kierkegaard on Nonconformity, the Individual vs. the Crowd, and the Power of the Minority

“Truth always rests with the minority … because the minority is generally formed by those who really have an opinion, while the strength of a majority is illusory, formed by the gangs who have no opinion.”

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Zadie Smith on the Psychology of the Two Types of Writers
Zadie Smith on the Psychology of the Two Types of Writers

“It’s a feeling of happiness that knocks me clean out of adjectives. I think sometimes that the best reason for writing novels is to experience those four and a half hours after you write the final word.”

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Celebrated Writers on the Creative Benefits of Keeping a Diary
Celebrated Writers on the Creative Benefits of Keeping a Diary

Reflections on the value of recording our inner lives from Woolf, Thoreau, Sontag, Emerson, Nin, Plath, and more.

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Anne Truitt on Resisting the Label “Artist” and the Difference Between Doing Art and Being an Artist
Anne Truitt on Resisting the Label “Artist” and the Difference Between Doing Art and Being an Artist

“Artists have no choice but to express their lives.”

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Mozart on Creativity and the Ideation Process
Mozart on Creativity and the Ideation Process

“It is quite natural that people who really have something particular about them should be different from each other on the outside as well as on the inside.”

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C.S. Lewis on Why We Read
C.S. Lewis on Why We Read

How great books both change us and make us more ourselves.

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Legendary Composer Aaron Copland on the Conditions of Creativity, Emotion vs. Intellect, and the Trap of Public Opinion
Legendary Composer Aaron Copland on the Conditions of Creativity, Emotion vs. Intellect, and the Trap of Public Opinion

“The main thing is to be satisfied with your work yourself. It’s useless to have an audience happy if you are not happy.”

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How to Be Alone: An Antidote to One of the Central Anxieties and Greatest Paradoxes of Our Time
How to Be Alone: An Antidote to One of the Central Anxieties and Greatest Paradoxes of Our Time

“We live in a society which sees high self-esteem as a proof of well-being, but we do not want to be intimate with this admirable and desirable person.”

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Bad Feminist: Roxane Gay on the Complexities and Blind Spots of the Equality Movement
Bad Feminist: Roxane Gay on the Complexities and Blind Spots of the Equality Movement

“Feminism is grounded in supporting the choices of women even if we wouldn’t make certain choices for ourselves.”

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