Maria Popova

Across the abyss between one consciousness and another, between one frame of reference and another, we go on searching for an organizing principle to fathom the ultimate questions: What is life? What is death? What makes a body a person? What makes a planet a world? Over and over, we discover that it is all one question, that there might just be a single answer: love. Our love of knowledge. Our love of mystery. Our love of beauty transcending the vanity of ambition. Our love of truth prevailing over the howling hunger for power. Our love for each other — each of us a festival of particles and probabilities, a living question, a perishable miracle composed of chemistry and culture, of passion and chance. themarginalian.org/2026/01/02/tra…

Oliver Sacks on memory, originality, and why forgetting is necessary for creativity themarginalian.org/2026/05/26/oli…

What makes a soul mate – Roxane Gay on loving vs. being in love themarginalian.org/2023/10/11/rox…

"Whatever inspiration is, it's born from a continuous ‘I don't know.’" Nobel-winning Polish poet Wisława Szymborska on the creative power of uncertainty themarginalian.org/2017/03/27/wis…

Be Like Water – the philosophy and origin of Bruce Lee's famous metaphor for resilience themarginalian.org/2013/05/29/lik…

Love After Love – one of the greatest poems ever written, a miniature work of philosophy about being at home in yourself themarginalian.org/2015/04/21/lov…

3 things to learn from a child and 7 from a thief (and these ten from Bob Dylan) themarginalian.org/2022/08/24/bob…

Figuring forward in an uncertain world themarginalian.org/2020/03/18/fig…

Oliver Sacks on memory, originality, and why forgetting is necessary for creativity themarginalian.org/2013/02/04/oli…

What books give us – Hermann Hesse on reading and the heart of wisdom themarginalian.org/2023/12/22/her…

John Steinbeck on how – a forgotten nonfiction masterpiece between marine biology and philosophy composed two decades before he won the Nobel for his novels: themarginalian.org/2022/11/09/ste…

A spell against stagnation – John O'Donohue on beginnings themarginalian.org/2023/12/30/joh…

Absolutely gorgeous read on the passionate fragility of our attachments, lensed through Whitman themarginalian.org/2024/01/13/mar…

How to hold your remorse – artist Maira Kalman's moving illustrated meditation on wresting defiant joy in living from an imperfect life themarginalian.org/2024/02/13/mai…

Moonlight and the magic of the unnecessary themarginalian.org/2026/05/24/moo…

"There is no love of life without despair of life." The best of The Marginalian this week in one place – Audre Lorde's antidote to despair, how not to dwell on the past, and what it's like to be a panda mailchi.mp/themarginalian…

We forget that none of this had to exist — that we weren’t owed mountains and music by the universe. And maybe we have to forget — or we would be too stupefied with gratitude for every raindrop and every eyelash to get through the daily tasks punctuating the unbidden wonder of our lives. But it is good, every once in a while, to let ourselves be stupefied by gratitude, to cast upon ourselves a spell against indifference by moving through the world with an inner bow at every littlest thing that prevailed over the odds of otherwise in order to exist. themarginalian.org/2024/12/12/tha…

George Saunders on the antidote to regret themarginalian.org/2024/03/11/reg…

Feeling blue? The dear cormorant has a #birddivination for you. As always, find it as a solo print and part of the deck of 100, along with the story and process behind them, at almanacofbirds.org

Swimming and the meaning of life themarginalian.org/2026/05/24/rog…

Where love goes when it goes themarginalian.org/2026/03/20/tra…