The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “Leo Tolstoy”

Maira Kalman on How to Live with Remorse and Wrest from It Defiant Joy in Living
Maira Kalman on How to Live with Remorse and Wrest from It Defiant Joy in Living

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Leo Tolstoy on the Obsolescence of the State as a Form of Government and the Antidote to Violence
Leo Tolstoy on the Obsolescence of the State as a Form of Government and the Antidote to Violence

“Violence no longer rests on the belief in its utility, but only on the fact of its having existed so long, and being organized by the ruling classes who profit by it.”

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Carrots and the Roots of Kindness, from Leo and Sophia Tolstoy to Ross Gay
Carrots and the Roots of Kindness, from Leo and Sophia Tolstoy to Ross Gay

A lovely reminder that “kindness and kin have the same mother.”

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The Best of Brain Pickings 2019
The Best of Brain Pickings 2019

Love, poetry, friendship, solitude, and lots of trees.

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Leo Tolstoy on Love and Its Paradoxical Demands
Leo Tolstoy on Love and Its Paradoxical Demands

“Future love does not exist. Love is a present activity only. The man who does not manifest love in the present has not love.”

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2,000 Years of Kindness
2,000 Years of Kindness

From Marcus Aurelius to Einstein, poets and philosophers on the deepest wellspring of our humanity.

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Life and Death and More Life: Leo Tolstoy on Science, Spirituality, and Our Search for Meaning
Life and Death and More Life: Leo Tolstoy on Science, Spirituality, and Our Search for Meaning

“A caterpillar sees itself shrivel up, but doesn’t see the butterfly which flies out of it.”

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Resolutions for a Life Worth Living: Attainable Aspirations Inspired by Great Humans of the Past
Resolutions for a Life Worth Living: Attainable Aspirations Inspired by Great Humans of the Past

Life-tested wisdom on how to live from James Baldwin, Ursula K. Le Guin, Leo Tolstoy, Seneca, Toni Morrison, Walt Whitman, Viktor Frankl, Rachel Carson, and Hannah Arendt.

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Leo Tolstoy on Kindness and the Measure of Love
Leo Tolstoy on Kindness and the Measure of Love

“Nothing can make our life, or the lives of other people, more beautiful than perpetual kindness.”

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Leo Tolstoy, Shortly Before His Death, on Love, Reason, Human Nature, and What Gives Meaning to Our Lives
Leo Tolstoy, Shortly Before His Death, on Love, Reason, Human Nature, and What Gives Meaning to Our Lives

“Reason and love define the demands of human nature… The demands of reason and love must not be subordinated to the demands of habit.”

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