Magazine Posts

 "Friendship is the sunshine of life — the quiet radiance that makes our lives not only livable but worth living. (This is why we must use the utmost care in how we wield the word friend".... Read more at the Marginalian

Ernesto Roque Sabato, (1911 - 2011) Argentine novelist, essayist, painter and physicist. He earned a doctorate in physics and started teaching theoretical physics. He received many prestigious prizes for his writings. In 1940, he began to contribute newspaper articles stating his opposition to the Juan Perón government. As a result he was removed from his teaching posts. He was appointed In 1983 to investigate the fate of those who disappeared during Argentina's military rule. His commission's comprehensive account was later used to prosecute nine members of the military establishment. 

Socrates (C 470–399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no texts and is known mainly through the posthumous accounts, written as dialogues, of classical writers, particularly his students Plato and Xenophon.  Contradictory accounts of Socrates make a reconstruction of his philosophy nearly impossible, a situation known as the Socratic problem. Socrates was a polarizing figure in Athenian society. In 399 BC, he was accused of impiety and corrupting the youth. After a trial that lasted a day, he was sentenced to death. He spent his last day in prison, refusing offers to help him escape.

JOHN O'DONOHUE (1956 - 2008) was an Irish poet, philosopher and scholar, a native Gaelic speaker. He wrote numerous international best-selling books including: Anam Cara, Beauty, Eternal Echoes, and Benedictus: A Book of Blessings- Published in the US as To Bless the Space Between Us. John O'Donohue Official Website.

Quote source: Excerpt from John O’Donohue's book "Anam Cara" (p17)

Frederick Douglass (1817 - 1895) - Frederick Augustus Washington  American abolitionist, social reformer, writer, orator and statesman. Born a slave, he escaped from slavery in Maryland and became a national leader of the abolitionist movement. Known for his oratory and antislavery writings. He was described by abolitionists in his time as a living counterexample to slaveholders' arguments that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. Douglass wrote three autobiographies, describing his experiences as a slave and later times of his life. Douglass also actively supported women's suffrage, and held several public offices.

"In The Story of Ferdinand (public library), a gentle-souled young misfit bull sits out the perpetual head-butting by which his peers hone their bull-skills, choosing instead to smell the flowers under his favorite cork tree in solitude. His mother, at first worried about his bullness, recognizes her son’s difference and trusts that he would find his way" And so he does..... Read more

"A symbolic moment of peace, grace, and humility amidst one of humanity’s most violent and disgraceful events".
"In December of 1914, a series of grassroots, unofficial ceasefires took hold of the Western Front in the heat of WWI. On Christmas, soldiers from an estimated 100,000 British and German troops began to exchange seasonal greetings and sing songs across the trenches",........ Continue Reading

Charles Kingsley (1819 – 1875) was a broad church priest of the Church of England, a university professor, social reformer, historian, novelist and poet. He is particularly associated with Christian socialism, the working men's college, and forming labour cooperatives, which failed, but encouraged later working reforms.
Source: Britannica

"A pleasingly disorienting foray into the fundamental perplexity of life".

Old Proverb: Most all things come with conditions, albeit hidden or unseen.

From Rumi to Blake to Nick Cave, by way of trees, hummingbirds, grief, and music. In this sixteenth year of The Marginalian, which draws primarily on the timeless wonders and wisdoms of the past, here are sixteen books of the immediate present that left on me a mark on par with those immortals — Read more

“The world where the owl is endlessly hungry and endlessly on the hunt is the world in which I live too. There is only one world.” Read more

Image credit: The royal natural history (1893) Authors: Lydekker, Richard,- Smithsonian Libraries