In 1964, Pantheon Books invited J.R.R. Tolkien (January 3, 1892–September 2, 1973) to write an introduction to George MacDonald’s The Golden Key, which he...
“In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”
In 1957, Albert Camus (November 7, 1913–January 4, 1960)...
HOW TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE
by Maria Popova
Don’t try to wash
your tired hands
clean from the bloodshed
of your private wars.
Just unclench the fist
that has come to...
“Whatever inspiration is, it’s born from a continuous ‘I don’t know,'” the Polish poet Wisława Szymborska observed in her magnificent Nobel Prize acceptance speech....
“It’s permitted to receive solace for whatever you did or didn’t do, pitiful, beautiful human.”
Few things in life are more painful than seeing ourselves...
“The emotional universes we inhabit are so distinct, and in deepest ways opposed, that nothing fruitful or sincere could ever emerge from association between...
“True solitude is found in the wild places, where one is without human obligation. One’s inner voices become audible… In consequence, one responds more...
“Please try to go to hell frequently because you will find the light there.”
In their strange cosmogony predating Copernicus by two millennia, the ancient...