The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Search results for “optimism”

Marcus Aurelius in Love: The Future Stoic Philosopher and Roman Emperor’s Passionate Teenage Love Letters to His Tutor
Marcus Aurelius in Love: The Future Stoic Philosopher and Roman Emperor’s Passionate Teenage Love Letters to His Tutor

“Those who love less should be helped out and lavished with more.”

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The Moral of Flowers: An Illustrated Victorian Encyclopedia of Poetic Lessons from the Garden
The Moral of Flowers: An Illustrated Victorian Encyclopedia of Poetic Lessons from the Garden

From the sensuous honeysuckle to the humble daisy, a lyrical journey to where nature meets human nature.

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The Art of Centering: Potter and Poet M.C. Richards on What She Learned at the Wheel About Non-Dualism, Creative Wholeness, and the Poetry of Personhood
The Art of Centering: Potter and Poet M.C. Richards on What She Learned at the Wheel About Non-Dualism, Creative Wholeness, and the Poetry of Personhood

“Centering is a verb… an ongoing process… a way of balancing, a spiritual resource in times of conflict, an imagination… an alchemical vessel, a retort, which bears an integration of purposes, an integration of levels of consciousness.”

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Abraham Lincoln on Equality, the Slippery Slope of Exclusion, and How Nationalism Betrays the Nation’s Founding Ideals
Abraham Lincoln on Equality, the Slippery Slope of Exclusion, and How Nationalism Betrays the Nation’s Founding Ideals

A prescient admonition against the infinite regress of “except.”

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The Weighing: Jane Hirshfield’s Stunning Ode to Resilience
The Weighing: Jane Hirshfield’s Stunning Ode to Resilience

A well to the groundwater of our strength.

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The Poetics of Outer Toughness and Inner Tenderness: Gorgeous 19th-Century Engravings of Cacti
The Poetics of Outer Toughness and Inner Tenderness: Gorgeous 19th-Century Engravings of Cacti

A succulent serenade to the elegant geometry of spiny splendor.

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Calculating the Incalculable: Thoreau on the True Value of a Tree
Calculating the Incalculable: Thoreau on the True Value of a Tree

“What would human life be without forests, those natural cities?”

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Favorite Books of 2019
Favorite Books of 2019

From the hidden universe beneath our feet to delight as a countercultural force of courage and resistance, by way of Patti Smith, Toni Morrison, and the Greek myths.

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13 Life-Learnings from 13 Years of Brain Pickings
13 Life-Learnings from 13 Years of Brain Pickings

More fluid reflections on keeping a solid center.

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Year of the Monkey: Patti Smith on Dreams, Loss, Love, and Mending the Broken Realities of Life
Year of the Monkey: Patti Smith on Dreams, Loss, Love, and Mending the Broken Realities of Life

“One cannot ask for a life, or two lives. One can only warrant the hope of an increasing potency in each man’s heart.”

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