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Maria Popova
@themarginalian
Reader. Writer. Creator of The Marginalian (long ago named Brain Pickings). Author of #Figuring. Lover of trees. Petter of moss. Rider of a cobalt blue bicycle.
Brooklyn, NY
themarginalian.org
Joined October 2007
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    Maria Popova
    @themarginalian
    Jan 6
    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
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    Traversal: Particles, Poetry, Blue, and Our Search for Meaning
    From themarginalian.org
    62K
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    Maria Popova
    @themarginalian
    Sep 13, 2018
    Watch to the end. The most optimistic thing I’ve seen in ages. If this tiny friend can make it across the abyss, and with such uncomplicated grace, so can we. (Nail for snail scale.)
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    Maria Popova
    @themarginalian
    Nov 29, 2020
    “Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.” C.S. Lewis, born on this day in 1898, on true friendship – just wonderful: brainpickings.org/2014/09/08/c-s…
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    Maria Popova
    @themarginalian
    Apr 12, 2020
    “The constellations of solidarity, altruism, and improvisation are within most of us and reappear at these times.” Rebecca Solnit on cataclysm as a catalyst for dignity, agency, and human goodness brainpickings.org/2017/10/16/reb…
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    Maria Popova
    @themarginalian
    Nov 9, 2021
    “Books are key to understanding the world and participating in a democratic society.” Carl Sagan, born on this day in 1934, on reading as an essential instrument of citizenship
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    Carl Sagan on the Power of Books and Reading as the Path to Democracy
    From themarginalian.org
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    Maria Popova
    @themarginalian
    Aug 24, 2021
    “Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me, but I am the fire.”
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    Maria Popova
    @themarginalian
    Aug 24, 2021
    One of the finest, sharpest, most poetic things ever written about time, by Borges, born on this day in 1899: brainpickings.org/2016/09/19/a-n…
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    Maria Popova
    @themarginalian
    Nov 9, 2020
    “Love, like strength and courage, is a strange thing; the more we give the more we find we have to give.” Read the letters of a forgotten Victorian woman who lived and died with uncommon courage against the tide of her time: brainpickings.org/2019/09/18/wor…
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    Maria Popova
    @themarginalian
    Oct 3, 2019
    Barack Obama and Michelle Robinson were married on this day 1992. His lovely reflection on the secret to their mutually sustaining marriage and what his mom taught him about love: brainpickings.org/2016/09/13/bar…
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    Maria Popova
    @themarginalian
    Jan 28, 2017
    If the ancient Arab world had banned Western travelers from its borders, we’d have no mathematics, no astronomy, no medicine. #MuslimBan
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    Maria Popova
    @themarginalian
    Jul 7, 2018
    That moment you do yoga on your roof and look up and there is a rainbow smiling at you. And then you think about the rainbow as a metaphor for understanding consciousness: brainpickings.org/2012/04/18/the…
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    Maria Popova
    @themarginalian
    Aug 22, 2018
    In these historic times for American politics, I'm reminded of Hannah Arendt's timeless astuteness: “No matter how large the tissue of falsehood that an experienced liar has to offer, it will never be large enough … to cover the immensity of factuality.” brainpickings.org/2016/06/15/lyi…
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    Maria Popova
    @themarginalian
    Mar 10, 2021
    My Heart – an emotional intelligence primer in the form of an illustrated poem about our elastic capacity for love brainpickings.org/2019/05/23/my-…
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    Maria Popova
    @themarginalian
    Apr 21, 2018
    “Only by going alone in silence, without baggage, can one truly get into the heart of the wilderness. All other travel is mere dust and hotels and baggage and chatter." John Muir was born 180 years ago today. A cinematic love letter to his legacy: brainpickings.org/2017/02/13/wil…
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    Maria Popova
    @themarginalian
    Oct 5, 2018
    Some people express surprise that I take a political stance. I'm supposed to write about literature, philosophy, science, they say. But you can't read and reverence James Baldwin or Virginia Woolf or Rachel Carson without civil rights and women's rights and environmental justice.