The Marginalian
The Paradox of Free Will
The neuroscience, physics, and philosophy of freedom in a universe of fixed laws.
2 weeks ago
The neuroscience, physics, and philosophy of freedom in a universe of fixed laws.
The Marginalian
The Remedy for Creative Block and Existential Stuckness
"Faithfulness to the moment and to the present circumstance entails continuous surrender... Only...
2 months ago
"Faithfulness to the moment and to the present circumstance entails continuous surrender... Only unconditional surrender leads to real emptiness, and from that place of emptiness I can be prolific and free."
The Marginalian
May Sarton on the Art of Living Alone
"The people we love are built into us."
2 weeks ago
"The people we love are built into us."
The Marginalian
What We Look for When We Are Looking: John Steinbeck on Wonder and the Relational Nature of the...
Searching for "that principle which keys us deeply into the pattern of all life."
2 weeks ago
Searching for "that principle which keys us deeply into the pattern of all life."
The Marginalian
What It Takes to Grow: Pioneering Psychoanalyst Karen Horney on the Key to Self-Realization
"Self-knowledge... is not an aim in itself, but a means of liberating the forces of spontaneous...
2 weeks ago
"Self-knowledge... is not an aim in itself, but a means of liberating the forces of spontaneous growth. In this sense, to work at ourselves becomes not only the prime moral obligation, but... the prime moral privilege."
The Marginalian
Practical Mysticism: Evelyn Underhill’s Stunning Century-Old Manifesto for Secular Transcendence and...
"Because mystery is horrible to us, we have agreed for the most part to live in a world of labels;...
a month ago
"Because mystery is horrible to us, we have agreed for the most part to live in a world of labels; to make of them the current coin of experience, and ignore their merely symbolic character, the infinite gradation of values which they misrepresent."
The Marginalian
The Challenge of Closeness: Alain de Botton on Love, Vulnerability, and the Paradox of Avoidance
The psychological machinery of our commonest coping mechanism for the terror of hurt, rejection, and...
a week ago
The psychological machinery of our commonest coping mechanism for the terror of hurt, rejection, and abandonment.
The Marginalian
Some Thoughts about the Ocean and the Universe
How to bear the gravity of being.
a week ago
How to bear the gravity of being.
The Marginalian
Love and Fear: A Stunning 17th-Century Poem About How to Live with the Transcendent Terror of Love
"Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back."
2 weeks ago
"Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back."
The Marginalian
How to Love the World More: George Saunders on the Courage of Uncertainty
"In a world full of people who seem to know everything, passionately, based on little (often...
a month ago
"In a world full of people who seem to know everything, passionately, based on little (often slanted) information, where certainty is often mistaken for power, what a relief it is to be in the company of someone confident enough to stay unsure (that is, perpetually curious)."
The Marginalian
The Value of Being Wrong: Lewis Thomas on Generative Mistakes
In praise of our "property of error, spontaneous, uncontrolled, and rich in possibilities."
2 months ago
In praise of our "property of error, spontaneous, uncontrolled, and rich in possibilities."
The Marginalian
God, Human, Animal, Machine: Consciousness and Our Search for Meaning in the Age of Artificial...
An inquiry into the eternal enchantment of why the world exists.
3 months ago
An inquiry into the eternal enchantment of why the world exists.
The Marginalian
Trust, Betrayal, and the Nexus of Mathematics and Morality: The Prisoner’s Dilemma Animated
Illuminating the pitfalls of the mind in felt and gingerbread.
3 months ago
Illuminating the pitfalls of the mind in felt and gingerbread.
The Marginalian
O Sweet Spontaneous: E.E. Cummings’s Love-Poem to Earth and the Glory of Spring
The ultimate anthem of resistance to the assaults on life.
2 months ago
The ultimate anthem of resistance to the assaults on life.
The Marginalian
How We Render Reality: Attention as an Instrument of Love
"Since our consciousness plays some part in what comes into being, the play of attention can both...
3 weeks ago
"Since our consciousness plays some part in what comes into being, the play of attention can both create and destroy, but it never leaves its object unchanged."
The Marginalian
How to Grow Up: Nick Cave’s Life-Advice to a 13-Year-Old
"Fill yourself with the beautiful stuff of the world... Get amazed. Get astonished. Get awed on a...
a month ago
"Fill yourself with the beautiful stuff of the world... Get amazed. Get astonished. Get awed on a regular basis, so that getting awed is habitual and becomes a state of being."
The Marginalian
Stunning Century-Old Illustrations of Tibetan Fairy Tales from the Artist Who Created Bambi
Soulful art from stories that speak "to the childhood of all times and all races."
3 weeks ago
Soulful art from stories that speak "to the childhood of all times and all races."
The Marginalian
An Introvert’s Field Guide to Friendship: Thoreau on the Challenges and Rewards of the Art of...
"We only need to be as true to others as we are to ourselves that there may be ground enough for...
2 months ago
"We only need to be as true to others as we are to ourselves that there may be ground enough for friendship."
The Marginalian
2,000 Years of Kindness
From Marcus Aurelius to Einstein, poets and philosophers on the deepest wellspring of our humanity.
2 months ago
From Marcus Aurelius to Einstein, poets and philosophers on the deepest wellspring of our humanity.
The Marginalian
Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” Brought to Life in a Spanish Flashmob of 100 Musicians
A touchingly human reminder of our capacity for ecstasy, transcendence, and collective felicity.
3 weeks ago
A touchingly human reminder of our capacity for ecstasy, transcendence, and collective felicity.
The Marginalian
Jealousy and Its Antidote: Pioneering Psychiatrist Leslie Farber on the Tangled Psychology of Our...
"Every jealous person knows jealousy to be a brutally degrading experience and resists with all his...
a month ago
"Every jealous person knows jealousy to be a brutally degrading experience and resists with all his might revealing the extent of his degradation."
The Marginalian
Coleridge on the Paradox of Friendship and Romantic Love
On sympathy, reciprocity, and satisfying the fulness of our nature.
2 months ago
On sympathy, reciprocity, and satisfying the fulness of our nature.
The Marginalian
Nikolai Vavilov and the Living Library of Resilience: The Story of the World’s First Seed Bank and...
The most moving story of self-sacrifice in the history of science.
2 months ago
The most moving story of self-sacrifice in the history of science.
The Marginalian
Lichens and the Meaning of Life
"We are lichens on a grand scale."
2 months ago
"We are lichens on a grand scale."
The Marginalian
The Life of Trees: A Poem
"I want to sleep and dream the life of trees, beings from the muted world..."
2 months ago
"I want to sleep and dream the life of trees, beings from the muted world..."
The Marginalian
The Art of Lying Fallow: Psychoanalyst Masud Khan on the Existential Salve for the Age of Cultish...
On inviting the state of being that "allows for that larval inner experience which distinguishes...
a month ago
On inviting the state of being that "allows for that larval inner experience which distinguishes true psychic creativity from obsessional productiveness."
The Marginalian
The Transcendent Brain: The Poetic Physicist Alan Lightman on Spirituality for the Science-Spirited
A largehearted invitation to "stand on the precipice between the known and the unknown, without...
2 months ago
A largehearted invitation to "stand on the precipice between the known and the unknown, without fear, without anxiety, but instead with awe and wonder at this strange and beautiful cosmos we find ourselves in."
The Marginalian
The Dalai Lama’s Ethical and Ecological Philosophy for the Next Generation, Illustrated
"We are all interconnected in the universe, and from this, universal responsibility arises......
2 months ago
"We are all interconnected in the universe, and from this, universal responsibility arises... Everyone has the responsibility to develop a happier world."
The Marginalian
The Double Flame: Octavio Paz on Love
“Love is a bet, a wild one, placed on freedom. Not my own; the freedom of the Other… A knot made of...
4 weeks ago
“Love is a bet, a wild one, placed on freedom. Not my own; the freedom of the Other… A knot made of two intertwined freedoms.” We love to forget ourselves, but also to remember what we are: mortal creatures lustful of meaning, radiant with life, eternally alone and eternally...
The Marginalian
Heroism and the Human Search for Meaning: Ernest Becker on the Hidden Root of Our Existential...
"To become conscious of what one is doing to earn his feeling of heroism is the main self-analytic...
a month ago
"To become conscious of what one is doing to earn his feeling of heroism is the main self-analytic problem of life."
The Marginalian
Magnolias and the Meaning of Life: Science, Poetry, Existentialism
On cruelty, kindness, and the song of life.
a month ago
On cruelty, kindness, and the song of life.
The Marginalian
How the Octopus Came to Earth: Stunning 19th-Century French Chromolithographs of Cephalopods
The art-science that captured the wonder of some of "the most brilliant productions of Nature."
4 days ago
The art-science that captured the wonder of some of "the most brilliant productions of Nature."
The Marginalian
Dead Stars: Poet Laureate Ada Limón’s Stunning Love Poem to Life
"We’ve come this far, survived this much. What would happen if we decided to survive more? To love...
a week ago
"We’ve come this far, survived this much. What would happen if we decided to survive more? To love harder?"
The Marginalian
The Last Wonder: D.H. Lawrence on Death and the Best Lifelong Preparation for It
"Know thyself, and that thou art mortal. But know thyself, denying that thou art mortal."
3 weeks ago
"Know thyself, and that thou art mortal. But know thyself, denying that thou art mortal."
The Marginalian
Let Your Heart Be Broken
"The miracle is that we rise again out of suffering... The miracle is that we create ourselves...
a month ago
"The miracle is that we rise again out of suffering... The miracle is that we create ourselves anew."
The Marginalian
May Sarton on Grieving a Pet
"It is absolutely inward and private, the relation between oneself and an animal."
2 months ago
"It is absolutely inward and private, the relation between oneself and an animal."
The Marginalian
The Afterlives of the Soul: Sister Nivedita on Love and Death
"To the soul, time does not exist. Only her own great purpose exists, shining clear and steady...
a month ago
"To the soul, time does not exist. Only her own great purpose exists, shining clear and steady through the mists before her."
The Marginalian
Henry James on Losing a Mother
"These are hours of exquisite pain; thank Heaven this particular pang comes to us but once."
a month ago
"These are hours of exquisite pain; thank Heaven this particular pang comes to us but once."
The Marginalian
Sundogs and the Sacred Geometry of Wonder: The Science of the Atmospheric Phenomenon That Inspired...
Notes on the eternal dialogue between art and science in our yearning to know reality.
2 weeks ago
Notes on the eternal dialogue between art and science in our yearning to know reality.
The Marginalian
Loving the Tree of Life: Annie Dillard on How to Bear Your Mortality
"We live and move by splitting the light of the present, as a canoe’s bow parts water."
a month ago
"We live and move by splitting the light of the present, as a canoe’s bow parts water."
The Marginalian
May Sarton on Writing, Gardening, and the Importance of Patience Over Will in Creative Work
"Gardening is like poetry in that it is gratuitous, and also that it cannot be done on will alone."
a month ago
"Gardening is like poetry in that it is gratuitous, and also that it cannot be done on will alone."
The Marginalian
Wholeness and the Implicate Order: Physicist David Bohm on Bridging Consciousness and Reality
How to "include everything coherently and harmoniously in an overall whole that is undivided,...
a week ago
How to "include everything coherently and harmoniously in an overall whole that is undivided, unbroken, and without a border."
The Marginalian
The Stunning Mystical Paintings of the 16th-Century Portuguese Artist Francisco de Holanda
Blake before Blake, Hilma before Hilma.
2 months ago
Blake before Blake, Hilma before Hilma.
The Marginalian
Stunning 200-Year-Old French Illustrations of Exotic, Endangered, and Extinct Birds
From peacocks to penguins, a winged menagerie of wonder.
2 months ago
From peacocks to penguins, a winged menagerie of wonder.
The Marginalian
Enchantment and the Courage of Joy: René Magritte on the Antidote to the Banality of Pessimism
"Life is wasted when we make it more terrifying, precisely because it is so easy to do so."
3 days ago
"Life is wasted when we make it more terrifying, precisely because it is so easy to do so."
The Marginalian
The Heart of Matter: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin on Bridging the Scientific and the Sacred
"Blessed be you, mighty matter, irresistible march of evolution, reality ever new-born; you who, by...
3 weeks ago
"Blessed be you, mighty matter, irresistible march of evolution, reality ever new-born; you who, by constantly shattering our mental categories, force us to go ever further and further in our pursuit of the truth."
The Marginalian
May Sarton on How to Cultivate Your Talent
"A talent grows by being used, and withers if it is not used."
2 months ago
"A talent grows by being used, and withers if it is not used."
The Marginalian
Consciousness, Artificial Intelligence, and Our Search for Meaning: Oliver Sacks on ChatGPT, 30...
"We are not incoherent, a bundle of sensations, but a self, rising from experience, continually...
a month ago
"We are not incoherent, a bundle of sensations, but a self, rising from experience, continually growing and revised... Through experience, education, art, and life, we teach our brains to become unique. We learn to be individuals. This is a neurological learning as well as a...
The Marginalian
Youth and Age: Kahlil Gibran on the Art of Becoming
A roadmap to the fulfilled belonging on the other side of "the great aloneness which knows not what...
a month ago
A roadmap to the fulfilled belonging on the other side of "the great aloneness which knows not what is far and what is near, nor what is small nor great."
The Marginalian
The Broadest Portal to Joy
"Despite every single lie to the contrary, despite every single action born of that lie — we are in...
a month ago
"Despite every single lie to the contrary, despite every single action born of that lie — we are in the midst of rhizomatic care that extends in every direction, spatially, temporally, spiritually."
The Marginalian
How to Grow Re-enchanted with the World: A Salve for the Sense of Existential Meaninglessness and...
A shimmering reminder that "the magic is of our own conjuring."
3 months ago
A shimmering reminder that "the magic is of our own conjuring."
The Marginalian
William James on the Most Vital Understanding for Successful Relationships
"Neither the whole of truth nor the whole of good is revealed to any single observer."
3 hours ago
"Neither the whole of truth nor the whole of good is revealed to any single observer."
The Marginalian
How to Bear Your Loneliness: Grounding Wisdom from the Great Buddhist Teacher Pema Chödrön
"We are cheating ourselves when we run away from the ambiguity of loneliness."
2 months ago
"We are cheating ourselves when we run away from the ambiguity of loneliness."
The Marginalian
From Cells to Souls: The Poetic Science of How the Brain Became
The making of our densely networked crucible of thought and tenderness.
2 months ago
The making of our densely networked crucible of thought and tenderness.
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