The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “love”

From a Gentleman to a Lady: A Clever Cryptographic Love Letter from the 1850s
From a Gentleman to a Lady: A Clever Cryptographic Love Letter from the 1850s

“…dropped from the pocket of a young man who is very well known in sporting circles.”

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A Visual History of Romantic Friendship
A Visual History of Romantic Friendship

“Smashes,” “crushes,” “spoons,” and other curious nineteenth-century relationship varieties.

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Emerson on the Two Pillars of Friendship
Emerson on the Two Pillars of Friendship

“A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere.”

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The Poetics of Reverie: Philosopher Gaston Bachelard on Love, Solitude, and Happiness
The Poetics of Reverie: Philosopher Gaston Bachelard on Love, Solitude, and Happiness

“Love is the contact of two poetries, the fusion of two reveries.”

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Albert Camus on Happiness and Love, Illustrated by Wendy MacNaughton
Albert Camus on Happiness and Love, Illustrated by Wendy MacNaughton

“If those whom we begin to love could know us as we were before meeting them … they could perceive what they have made of us.”

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The Price of Admission: Dan Savage on the Myth of “The One” and the Unsettling Secret of Lasting Love
The Price of Admission: Dan Savage on the Myth of “The One” and the Unsettling Secret of Lasting Love

How the lies we tell each other can become our greatest springboard for self-transcendence.

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Why We Hurt Each Other: Tolstoy’s Letters to Gandhi on Love, Violence, and the Truth of the Human Spirit
Why We Hurt Each Other: Tolstoy’s Letters to Gandhi on Love, Violence, and the Truth of the Human Spirit

“Love is the only way to rescue humanity from all ills.”

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Andy Warhol on the Joys of Virtual Relationships
Andy Warhol on the Joys of Virtual Relationships

“It’s a wonderful arrangement: We don’t have to get each other’s bad morning breath, yet we have wonderful breakfasts together every morning like every other happy couple.”

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A “Dynamic Interaction”: How We Learn (and Unlearn) the Language of Love
A “Dynamic Interaction”: How We Learn (and Unlearn) the Language of Love

From developmental psychology to Timothy Leary, a reframing of love as deliberate mastery rather than magical thinking.

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The Breathtaking Love Letters of Violet Trefusis and Vita Sackville-West
The Breathtaking Love Letters of Violet Trefusis and Vita Sackville-West

“All the hoardings of my imagination I have laid bare to you. There isn’t a recess in my brain into which you haven’t penetrated.”

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