The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Search results for “mark twain”

Nobel Laureate André Gide on What It Really Means to Be Original and Goethe’s Paradoxical Model of Creativity
Nobel Laureate André Gide on What It Really Means to Be Original and Goethe’s Paradoxical Model of Creativity

“If one does not absorb everything, one loses oneself completely. The mind must be greater than the world and contain it…”

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Oliver Jeffers on the Paradox of Ownership and the Allure of Duality
Oliver Jeffers on the Paradox of Ownership and the Allure of Duality

“We only own something because everybody agrees that we do.”

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Montaigne on “Curation,” the Illusion of Originality, and How We Form Our Opinions
Montaigne on “Curation,” the Illusion of Originality, and How We Form Our Opinions

“I have gathered a posy of other men’s flowers, and nothing but the thread that binds them is mine own.”

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Creative Courage for Young Hearts: 15 Emboldening Picture Books Celebrating the Lives of Great Artists, Writers, and Scientists
Creative Courage for Young Hearts: 15 Emboldening Picture Books Celebrating the Lives of Great Artists, Writers, and Scientists

Jane Goodall, Julia Child, Pablo Neruda, Marie Curie, E.E. Cummings, Albert Einstein, Ella Fitzgerald, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Frida Kahlo, and more.

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When I Have a Little Girl / When I Have a Little Boy: A Vintage Illustrated Daydream about Life without Unimaginative Rules
When I Have a Little Girl / When I Have a Little Boy: A Vintage Illustrated Daydream about Life without Unimaginative Rules

“She can pet any dog she likes without asking if it’s friendly. (She’ll know. I always do.)”

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Thomas Mann’s Moving Tribute for His Dear Friend Hermann Hesse’s Sixtieth Birthday
Thomas Mann’s Moving Tribute for His Dear Friend Hermann Hesse’s Sixtieth Birthday

“I… love the man, his serenely contemplative, kindly-mischievous air, the fine, deep glance of his poor weak eyes, which with their blueness light up the gaunt, sharply cut face…”

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The Midwifery of Creativity: Beloved Poet Denise Levertov on How a Great Work of Art Is Born
The Midwifery of Creativity: Beloved Poet Denise Levertov on How a Great Work of Art Is Born

On giving shape to the stimulus “selected by some interior mysterious process out of all the other minutes and hours.”

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The Key to the Good Life: Bertrand Russell on Love and How to Stop Limiting Your Happiness
The Key to the Good Life: Bertrand Russell on Love and How to Stop Limiting Your Happiness

“The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. Neither love without knowledge, nor knowledge without love can produce a good life.”

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Hurry Up and Wait: Daniel Handler and Maira Kalman’s Whimsical Children’s Book for Grownups about Presence in the Age of Productivity
Hurry Up and Wait: Daniel Handler and Maira Kalman’s Whimsical Children’s Book for Grownups about Presence in the Age of Productivity

“It feels so good to go someplace. Except when you want to stay right there where you are.”

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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to School: A Charming Catalog of Excuses and an Allegory for How the Human Imagination Works
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to School: A Charming Catalog of Excuses and an Allegory for How the Human Imagination Works

A playful parable about the stories we tell to avoid being wrong and the combinatorial nature of human creativity.

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