The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “books”

Philosopher Martha Nussbaum on How to Live with Our Human Fragility
Philosopher Martha Nussbaum on How to Live with Our Human Fragility

“To be a good human being is to have a kind of openness to the world, an ability to trust uncertain things beyond your own control.”

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Viktor Frankl on the Secret to Success
Viktor Frankl on the Secret to Success

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Kierkegaard on How to Channel Anxiety into Creativity
Kierkegaard on How to Channel Anxiety into Creativity

“Because it is possible to create — creating one’s self, willing to be one’s self… — one has anxiety. One would have no anxiety if there were no possibility whatever.”

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Trying Not to Try: Finding Freedom from Striving in the Ancient Chinese Concept of Wu-Wei
Trying Not to Try: Finding Freedom from Striving in the Ancient 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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Hannah Arendt on the Power of Being an Outsider
Hannah Arendt on the Power of Being an Outsider

“We humanize what is going on in the world and in ourselves only by speaking of it, and in the course of speaking of it we learn to be human.”

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Pythagoras on the Purpose of Life and the Meaning of Wisdom
Pythagoras on the Purpose of Life and the Meaning of Wisdom

Abiding insight into the aim of human existence from the man who revolutionized science and coined the word “philosopher.”

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Virginia Woolf on Finding Beauty in the Uncertainty of Time, Space, and Being
Virginia Woolf on Finding Beauty in the Uncertainty of Time, Space, and Being

Calibration and consolation for those moments when it seems impossible that we should ever again recompose the world’s broken fragments into a harmonious whole.

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Arundhati Roy on the Deepest Measure of Success
Arundhati Roy on the Deepest Measure of Success

“To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance… To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple.”

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Consolation for Sorrow from King Arthur’s Court: Merlyn’s Advice on What to Do When the World Gets You Down
Consolation for Sorrow from King Arthur’s Court: Merlyn’s Advice on What to Do When the World Gets You Down

“Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting.”

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Mary Oliver on the Measure of a Life Well Lived and How to Magnify Your Aliveness
Mary Oliver on the Measure of a Life Well Lived and How to Magnify Your Aliveness

“Do you need a prod? Do you need a little darkness to get you going?”

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