The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Search results for “mercy”

Ordering the Heavens: Hevelius’s Revolutionary 17th-Century Star Catalog and the First Moon Map
Ordering the Heavens: Hevelius’s Revolutionary 17th-Century Star Catalog and the First Moon Map

How a visionary manuscript, completed by the first female astronomer of the Western world, survived three fires to become a beacon of scientific dedication.

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Swami Vivekananda on the Secret of Work: Intelligent Consolation for the Pressures of Productivity from 1896
Swami Vivekananda on the Secret of Work: Intelligent Consolation for the Pressures of Productivity from 1896

“Every work that we do… every thought that we think, leaves such an impression on the mind-stuff…”

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Joan Didion on Storytelling, the Economy of Words, and Facing Rejection
Joan Didion on Storytelling, the Economy of Words, and Facing Rejection

“Short stories demand a certain awareness of one’s own intentions, a certain narrowing of the focus.”

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Cats, Dogs, and the Human Condition: The Year’s Best Books about Pets and Animals
Cats, Dogs, and the Human Condition: The Year’s Best Books about Pets and Animals

Artful cats, literary dogs, Bob Dylan, and a whole lot of non-human genius.

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The 13 Best Biographies, Memoirs, and History Books of 2013
The 13 Best Biographies, Memoirs, and History Books of 2013

From Alan Turing to Susan Sontag, by way of a lost cat, a fierce Victorian lady-journalist, and some very odd creative habits.

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Rilke on the Symbiosis Between the Body and the Soul
Rilke on the Symbiosis Between the Body and the Soul

“I am not one of those who neglect the body in order to make of it a sacrificial offering for the soul, since my soul would thoroughly dislike being served in such a fashion.”

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Kurt Vonnegut’s Advice to the Young
Kurt Vonnegut’s Advice to the Young

“Teaching, may I say, is the noblest profession of all in a democracy.”

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Charles Dickens on Grief and How to Heal a Mourning Heart
Charles Dickens on Grief and How to Heal a Mourning Heart

“The disturbed mind and affections, like the tossed sea, seldom calm without an intervening time of confusion and trouble.”

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The 13 Best Science and Technology Books of 2013
The 13 Best Science and Technology Books of 2013

The wonders of the gut, why our brains are wired to be social, what poetry and math have in common, swarm intelligence vs. “God,” and more.

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Mark Twain on Religion and Our Human Egotism
Mark Twain on Religion and Our Human Egotism

“The human race … sits up nine nights in the week to admire its own originality.”

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