Maria Popova

@mariapopova@indieweb.social
15.1K Followers
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5.8K Posts
Reader. Writer. Creator of The Marginalian (long ago named Brain Pickings). Lover of trees. Petter of moss. Rider of a cobalt blue bicycle with a golden bell.
The Marginalianhttps://themarginalian.org
Maria PopovaAug 20, 2024
Born on this day in 1905, the Swiss poet, philosopher, and linguist wrote brilliantly about the evolution of consciousness in a theory he called "the ever-present origin" https://t.co/Xluc1cAQnX
The Ever-Present Origin: Swiss Poet, Philosopher, and Linguist Jean Gebser’s Prescient 1949 Vision for the Evolution of Consciousness

“Origin is ever-present. It is not a beginning, since all beginning is linked with time… not just the ‘now’… or a unit of time. It is ever-originating, an achievement …

The Marginalian
Maria PopovaAug 20, 2024

“Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never ­being satisfied.”

Zadie Smith's 10 timeless rules of writing (which apply to all creative work) https://t.co/GWLpKtfaeK

Zadie Smith’s 10 Rules of Writing

“Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never ­being satisfied.”

The Marginalian
Maria PopovaAug 20, 2024
Winnicott on the qualities of a healthy mind and a healthy relationship https://t.co/iORn09WYh7
Winnicott on the Qualities of a Healthy Mind and a Healthy Relationship

“A sign of health in the mind is the ability of one individual to enter imaginatively and yet accurately into the thoughts and feelings and hopes and fears of another person; also to allow th…

The Marginalian
Maria PopovaAug 19, 2024
You may know “a murmuration of starlings,” but did you know that a group of crows is called “a murder” and peacocks “an ostentation”? How groups of birds got their names (thanks to a forgotten medieval woman), with magnificent vintage illustrations: https://t.co/s8EXOGnKYh
A Parliament of Owls and a Murder of Crows: How Groups of Birds Got Their Names, with Wondrous Vintage Illustrations by Brian Wildsmith

Language is an instrument of great precision and poignancy — our best tool for telling each other what the world is and what we are, for conveying the blueness of blue and the wonder of being…

The Marginalian
Maria PopovaAug 19, 2024
I have long loved Umberto Eco's notion of the "antilibrary" – the unread books in our lives, and why they are actually more valuable than those already read https://t.co/Y7BQF2SLkJ
Umberto Eco’s Antilibrary: Why Unread Books Are More Valuable to Our Lives than Read Ones

How to become an “antischolar” in a culture that treats knowledge as “an ornament that allows us to rise in the pecking order.”

The Marginalian
Maria PopovaAug 19, 2024

Bird divination for today, available as a print benefitting the Audubon Society at https://t.co/ItZN7ptahd

More of them, and the story behind this strange labor of love, at https://t.co/xpo04XE701 https://t.co/ia9pENzV04

Bird Divinations: Kingfisher (about: almanacofbirds.org) Art Print by Maria Popova

Buy Bird Divinations: Kingfisher (about: almanacofbirds.org) Art Print by Maria Popova. Worldwide shipping available at Society6.com. Just one of millions of high quality products available.

Society6
Maria PopovaAug 19, 2024

"A relationship is a physiologic process, as real and as potent as any pill or surgical procedure."

Relationship rupture and the limbic system – fascinating read on the neurobiology of abandonment and separation https://t.co/3OLeHB39Jv

Relationship Rupture and the Limbic System: The Physiology of Abandonment and Separation

“A relationship is a physiologic process, as real and as potent as any pill or surgical procedure.”

The Marginalian
Maria PopovaAug 19, 2024
The Peace of Wild Things – Wendell Berry's poetic antidote to despair, animated https://t.co/5cX9aQ1g1h
The Peace of Wild Things: Wendell Berry’s Poetic Antidote to Despair, Animated

On where to seek refuge from the forethought of grief.

The Marginalian
Maria PopovaAug 19, 2024
The Paradox of Active Surrender – Jeanette Winterson's uncommonly insightful meditation on how art transforms us https://t.co/5DXk2A7Zkp
The Paradox of Active Surrender: Jeanette Winterson on How Learning to Understand Art Transforms Us

“True art, when it happens to us, challenges the ‘I’ that we are.”

The Marginalian
Maria PopovaAug 19, 2024

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

From Marcus Aurelius to Tolstoy to Einstein, two millennia of wisdom on the nuances, challenges, and rippling rewards of kindness https://t.co/fIJNCcH1Vd

2,000 Years of Kindness

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

The Marginalian