The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads by Maria Popova

The Vital Difference Between Work and Labor: Lewis Hyde on Sustaining the Creative Spirit
The Vital Difference Between Work and Labor: Lewis Hyde on Sustaining the Creative Spirit

“The gifts of the inner world must be accepted as gifts in the outer world if they are to retain their vitality.”

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What the Heart Keeps When the Mind Goes: May Sarton on Loving a Loved One Through Dementia
What the Heart Keeps When the Mind Goes: May Sarton on Loving a Loved One Through Dementia

On remaining in loving contact with the intangible, immutable part of the self.

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Rootedness and Reclaiming the Sacred
Rootedness and Reclaiming the Sacred

“Everything we do matters, and matters wondrously.”

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The Unphotographable: The Moon, the Tide, and the Living Shore
The Unphotographable: The Moon, the Tide, and the Living Shore

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How to Bear Each Other’s Suffering: Elie Wiesel on the Antidote to Our Paralysis in the Face of World-Overwhelm
How to Bear Each Other’s Suffering: Elie Wiesel on the Antidote to Our Paralysis in the Face of World-Overwhelm

“I believe if people talk, and they talk sincerely, with the same respect that one owes to a close friend or to God, something will come out of that, something good. I would call it presence.”

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Ways of Being: Rethinking Intelligence
Ways of Being: Rethinking Intelligence

“Intelligence is not something which exists, but something one does.”

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Turning Loss and Loneliness into Wonder: How the Victorian Visionary Marianne North Revolutionized Art and Science with Her Botanical Paintings
Turning Loss and Loneliness into Wonder: How the Victorian Visionary Marianne North Revolutionized Art and Science with Her Botanical Paintings

A vibrant foray into “a perfect world of wonders” fueled by the bittersweet dimension of life.

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Against the Cult of Originality: Emerson on the True Nature of Genius
Against the Cult of Originality: Emerson on the True Nature of Genius

“Great genial power… consists… in being altogether receptive.”

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The Footpath to Yourself: Robert Macfarlane on Landscape as a Lens on Inner Life
The Footpath to Yourself: Robert Macfarlane on Landscape as a Lens on Inner Life

“Paths run through people as surely as they run through places.”

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The Symphony of Belonging: Alfred Kazin on Music as Spiritual Homecoming
The Symphony of Belonging: Alfred Kazin on Music as Spiritual Homecoming

On the emotional machinery that suspends us between rapture and tears.

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