The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “philosophy”

Ted Hughes on the Universal Inner Child, in a Moving Letter to His Son
Ted Hughes on the Universal Inner Child, in a Moving Letter to His Son

“The only calibration that counts is how much heart people invest, how much they ignore their fears of being hurt or caught out or humiliated.”

read article

Christopher Hitchens on Mortality
Christopher Hitchens on Mortality

“To the dumb question ‘Why me?’ the cosmos barely bothers to return the reply: Why not?”

read article

Robert Sapolsky on Science and Wonder
Robert Sapolsky on Science and Wonder

“The purpose of science is not to cure us of our sense of mystery and wonder, but to constantly reinvent and reinvigorate it.”

read article

John Updike on the Universe and Why There is Something Rather Than Nothing
John Updike on the Universe and Why There is Something Rather Than Nothing

“The mystery of being is a permanent mystery, at least given the present state of the human brain.”

read article

The Probability That You Are Dreaming Right Now? 1 in 10.
The Probability That You Are Dreaming Right Now? 1 in 10.

Navigating the maze of dream-decisions, dream-consequences, and the invariable world of experiences.

read article

This Is Water: David Foster Wallace on Life
This Is Water: David Foster Wallace on Life

Revisiting the tragic literary hero’s only public insights on life.

read article

The Science of “Chunking,” Working Memory, and How Pattern Recognition Fuels Creativity
The Science of “Chunking,” Working Memory, and How Pattern Recognition Fuels Creativity

“Generating interesting connections between disparate subjects is what makes art so fascinating to create and to view… We are forced to contemplate a new, higher pattern that binds lower ones together.”

read article

Anaïs Nin on Life, Hand-Lettered by Artist Lisa Congdon
Anaïs Nin on Life, Hand-Lettered by Artist Lisa Congdon

“You live out the confusions until they become clear.”

read article

Stanley Kubrick on Fear, Mortality, and the Purpose of Life: A Rare 1968 Playboy Interview
Stanley Kubrick on Fear, Mortality, and the Purpose of Life: A Rare 1968 Playboy Interview

“However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.”

read article

Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren: A Hopeful Vision for Post-Occupy Humanity circa 1930
Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren: A Hopeful Vision for Post-Occupy Humanity circa 1930

“The love of money as a possession — as distinguished from the love of money as a means to the enjoyments and realities of life — will be recognised for what it is, a somewhat disgusting morbidity.”

read article

View Full Site

The Marginalian participates in the Bookshop.org and Amazon.com affiliate programs, designed to provide a means for sites to earn commissions by linking to books. In more human terms, this means that whenever you buy a book from a link here, I receive a small percentage of its price, which goes straight back into my own colossal biblioexpenses. Privacy policy. (TLDR: You're safe — there are no nefarious "third parties" lurking on my watch or shedding crumbs of the "cookies" the rest of the internet uses.)