Author: Maria Popova / Source: Brain Pickings “Progress is never permanent, will always be threatened, must be redoubled, restated and reimagined if it is to survive,” Zadie Smith wrote in her stirring essay on optimism and despair. But what does the reinvention, reassertion, and survival of

Author: Maria Popova / Source: Brain Pickings “Progress is never permanent, will always be threatened, must be redoubled, restated and reimagined if it is to survive,” Zadie Smith wrote in her spectacular essay on optimism and despair. The illusion of permanent progress inflicts a particularly

Author: Maria Popova / Source: Brain Pickings “Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never being satisfied,” Zadie Smith counseled in the tenth of her ten rules of writing — a tenet that applies with equally devastating precision to every realm of creative endeavor, be it poetry

Author: Maria Popova / Source: Brain Pickings It may be an elemental property of human nature to fantasize about utopias — a fantasy all the more alluring the more dystopian one’s actual society is. But the inescapable fallacy of the fantasy is that while a utopia promises universal flourishing

Women’s voices are important now, more than ever, and these new books shine a light on some of the most influential female writers of the century. Whether you’re struggling to get past a new hurdle, searching for the courage to find a new beginning or just need a little inspiration to accomplish