The Marginalian
The Marginalian

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A Gentle Corrective for the Epidemic of Identity Politics Turning Us on Each Other and on Ourselves
A Gentle Corrective for the Epidemic of Identity Politics Turning Us on Each Other and on Ourselves

“So many people are frightened by the wonder of their own presence. They are dying to tie themselves into a system, a role, or to an image, or to a predetermined identity that other people have actually settled on for them.”

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Carl Sagan on the Power of Books and Reading as the Path to Democracy
Carl Sagan on the Power of Books and Reading as the Path to Democracy

“Books are key to understanding the world and participating in a democratic society.”

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Rachel Carson on Science and Our Spiritual Bond with Nature
Rachel Carson on Science and Our Spiritual Bond with Nature

“Our origins are of the earth. And so there is in us a deeply seated response to the natural universe, which is part of our humanity.”

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Wallace Stevens on Reality, Creativity, and Our Greatest Self-Protection from the Pressure of the News
Wallace Stevens on Reality, Creativity, and Our Greatest Self-Protection from the Pressure of the News

“[The artist’s] function is to make his imagination … become the light in the minds of others. His role, in short, is to help people to live their lives.”

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Inner Preacher vs. Inner Teacher: Ursula K. Le Guin on Meaning-Making and the Artist’s Task
Inner Preacher vs. Inner Teacher: Ursula K. Le Guin on Meaning-Making and the Artist’s Task

“That’s how an artist can best speak as a member of a moral community: clearly, yet leaving around her words that area of silence, that empty space, in which other and further truths and perceptions can form in other minds.”

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The Best of Brain Pickings 2017
The Best of Brain Pickings 2017

The courage to be yourself, a Stoic’s antidote to anxiety, how friendship transforms us, in praise of solitude, and more.

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The Little-Known Visual Art of E.E. Cummings
The Little-Known Visual Art of E.E. Cummings

“Why do you paint? For exactly the same reason I breathe.”

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Rachel Carson on Writing and the Loneliness of Creative Work
Rachel Carson on Writing and the Loneliness of Creative Work

“If you write what you yourself sincerely think and feel and are interested in… you will interest other people.”

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Emily Dickinson’s Herbarium: A Forgotten Treasure at the Intersection of Science and Poetry
Emily Dickinson’s Herbarium: A Forgotten Treasure at the Intersection of Science and Poetry

An elegy for time and the mortality of beauty, composed with passionate patience and a sensuous cadence.

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Meryl Streep Sings Her Mother’s Lullaby
Meryl Streep Sings Her Mother’s Lullaby

A moment of sweetness nestled between the mighty ages of eternity.

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