A collection of sixteen restituted drawings by Austrian draftsman Alfred Kubin from the collection of Maximilian and Hertha Morgenstern will be offered in the Impressionist & Modern Art Evening and Day sales this June. Ahead of the sale we explore the motivations of Kubin — and the influence of his visual narrations on a generation of artists.

Claiming that our lives are similar to Sisyphus's is wrong and harmful.

Economist-turned-artist Sebastião Salgado began his photography practice after his finance role with the International Coffee Organization and the World

It’s easy to rediscover God in a moment of crisis and lose him again as life regains normalcy. But any piety that depends on circumstances is a house built on sand.

The Continuing Legacy of Simone Weil analyzes the core work of Simone Weil and her views on the nature of the human condition, humanity's relationship with God, and the objective state of our world. David Pollard argues that though much of Weil's work was focused on particular conditions operating in Europe prior to and including the period of the Second World War, much of it is as relevant today as it was then. | Author: David Pollard | Publisher: Hamilton Books | Publication Date: May 05, 2015 | Number of Pages: 130 pages | Language: English | Binding: Paperback | ISBN-10: 0761865748 | ISBN-13: 9780761865742

William Shakespeare quote about speech from The Taming of the Shrew: “My tongue will tell the anger of my heart, Or else my heart, concealing it, will break;”

Discover the life, works, and influence of Fyodor Dostoevsky, an iconic figure in Russian literature. Explore his biography, childhood, inspirations, famous works, and why people are captivated by him.

INFJ Development: To understand the INFJ’s development, we have to understand the hierarchy of mental functions for the INFJ. The hierarchy of mental functions for the INFJ is about which mental function (Sensing, Intuiting, Thinking or Feeling) the INFJ is most and least comfortable with using.

The Dregs...Psychic Crude is the second book in the series called, "The Dregs..." and features the ongoing, fictional adventures of Thomas Whyrd, sometimes clairvoyant psychic. The story includes romance, heartbreak, complicated relationships, and a grand scheme of cosmic deception that threatens the continued existence of the entire universe. This story is packed with page turning suspense, and keen insight about the nature of the human condition. Plus there are plot twists that you just won't see coming...until it's too late! You will be captivated by characters that play with the meaning of reality and challenge the sort-of-hero's sanity. This is not a book meant for children. It is definitely an adult adventure story, with graphic descriptions and language. | Author: Robert William Farmilo | Publisher: Farmilo Bennett Media | Publication Date: Sep 07, 2015 | Number of Pages: 370 pages | Language: English | Binding: Paperback | ISBN-10: 0986546941 | ISBN-13: 9780986546945

A collection of poems spanning the period from the 1940's to the present day. Conventional enough to rhyme 'Rhythms Of An Impenitent Life' is an observational study of the authors singular but unorthodox existance and his continuing struggle with the inner self. From childhood confusion to the safe haven of a happy marriage the poems chronicle aspects of the human condition and range variously from pathos to humour and from wanton desire to the gentle homecoming of absolute affection.

In 1948, amidst the uncertainty of post-war America, the Beat Generation was born. This literary movement, rooted in anti-materialism and the exploration of the human condition, gathered in the coffeehouses of New York and San Francisco to recite poetry alongside cups of black coffee. During the '50s and '60s, coffeehouses became synonymous with creativity and intellectualism. One such example was Caffè Lena in Saratoga, NY. Opened in a former woodworking shop in 1960, Caffè Lena remains the oldest continually running coffeehouse in the United States. That longevity has allowed it to host countless creative icons from the Beatniks to members of the Folk Revival, and established Caffè Lena as a cornerstone of the creative counterculture in America. The Blackwing 200 is a tribute to coffeehouses like Caffè Lena and the creative culture they help cultivate. Each pencil features a metallic copper design inspired by classic copper coffee roasting machines found in many coffeehouses during the ’50s and ’60s. The roasting process begins when the internal temperature of a coffee berry seed reaches 200 degrees Celsius, transforming it into the familiar coffee bean. These pencils also feature our firm graphite core that is perfect for finding inspiration in a local coffeehouse. Blackwings are coveted by writers and illustrators alike who prefer a soft, dark graphite. They feature an iconic shape and unique rectangular eraser which is replaceable and can be pulled out from the body.  Length:  7.9 inches Incl: 12 pencils

Clinical trials are vital for advancing medical knowledge and furthering the fight of human conditions and diseases. With continuing evidence and research in women’s health and more discoveries around women’s health, it is fact that women are valuable to clinical … Continue reading →+1469

Hypothetical thinking is the key to sustained innovation and creativity: invention drove the evolution of the human mind

Human Design Generators are the most common energy type. 35% of the human population are generators. They are the builders of the world and find pleasure in working.

Explore the mantra 'Always Strive, Adapt to Change, and Never Quit!' for resilience and success. Find inspiration to persevere in our...

The legal system of imperial China developed from two schools of thought: Confucianism and Legalism. Although both of them exerted a deep influence on China’s state-building as well as on its…

From French illustrator Blexbolex — whose poetic meditation on time, impermanence and the seasons you might recall from earlier this month — comes People, a continued exploration of the…

1 minute just doesn't come close to enough to tell the journey we have had with our beautiful sweet Sedona. Our Mama-Dona. This girl has been through so so much, but continues to show up and try. We...

The Fallen Ego versus the Renewing Nous: The Ancient Battle for Supremacy of the Soul. Find out about it in our monastery blog. We have been writing about Christianity, church history, church products and crafts, the lives of the great ascetics, etc.

The tales of gods and heroes from the ancient world continue to resonate across cultures, leaving an indelible mark on the tapestry of human imagination.

North Korea said on Tuesday it will scrap the armistice signed in 1953 that ended a three-year conflict with rival South Korea if the South and the United States continue with two-month long annual military drills.

NEW HAVEN, CT–In a diagnosis that helps explain the confusing and contradictory aspects of the cosmos that have baffled philosophers, theologians, and other students of the human condition for millennia, God, creator of the universe and longtime deity to billions of followers, was found Monday to suffer from bipolar…

From Alexander von Humboldt to Charles and Anne Lindbergh, these are stories of people of great vision and daring whose achievements continue to inspire us today, brilliantly told by master historian David McCullough. The bestselling author of Truman and John Adams, David McCullough has written profiles of exceptional men and women past and present who have not only shaped the course of history or changed how we see the world but whose stories express much that is timeless about the human condition. Here are Alexander von Humboldt, whose epic explorations of South America surpassed the Lewis and Clark expedition; Harriet Beecher Stowe, "the little woman who made the big war"; Frederic Remington; the extraordinary Louis Agassiz of Harvard; Charles and Anne Lindbergh, and their fellow long-distance pilots Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and Beryl Markham; Harry Caudill, the Kentucky lawyer who awakened the nation to the tragedy of Appalachia; and David Plowden, a present-day photographer of vanishing America. Different as they are from each other, McCullough's subjects have in common a rare vitality and sense of purpose. These are brave companions: to each other, to David McCullough, and to the reader, for with rare storytelling ability McCullough brings us into the times they knew and their very uncommon lives. Product DetailsISBN-13: 9780671792763 Media Type: Paperback Publisher: Simon & Schuster Publication Date: 11-01-1992 Pages: 256 Product Dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.70(d)About the Author David McCullough (1933–2022) twice received the Pulitzer Prize, for Truman and John Adams, and twice received the National Book Award, for The Path Between the Seas and Mornings on Horseback. His other acclaimed books include The Johnstown Flood, The Great Bridge, Brave Companions, 1776, The Greater Journey, The American Spirit, The Wright Brothers, and The Pioneers. He was the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award. Visit DavidMcCullough.com.Read an Excerpt Read an Excerpt Chapter 1 Journey to the Top of the World On a morning in May 1804, there arrived at the White House by Baltimore coach, and in the company of the painter Charles Willson Peale, a visitor from abroad: an aristocratic young German, age thirty-four, a bachelor, occupation scientist and explorer. And like Halley's comet or the white whale or other such natural phenomena dear to the nineteenth century, he would be remembered by all who saw him for the rest of their days. He had come to pay his respects to the president of the new republic, Thomas Jefferson, a fellow "friend of science," and to tell him something of his recent journeys through South and Central America. For the next several weeks he did little else but talk, while Jefferson, on their walks about the White House grounds; or James Madison, the secretary of state; or the clever Mrs. Madison; or Albert Gallatin, the secretary of the treasury; or those who came to dine with the president or to do business with him, listened in awe. The young man, they found, was a naturalist, an astronomer, a geographer, a geologist, a botanist, an authority on Indian antiquities, a linguist, an artist — an academy unto himself, as the poet Goethe would say. He was at home in any subject. He had read every book. He had seen things almost impossible to imagine. "We all consider him as a very extraordinary man," Gallatin told his wife, speaking apparently for Jefferson's entire official family, "and his travels, which he intends publishing on his return to Europe, will, I think, rank above any other productions of the kind." He also talked at double the speed of anybody Gallatin had ever met before and would shift suddenly from English, which he spoke superbly, into French or Spanish or German, seemingly unaware of what he was doing, but never hesitating for a word, apparently to the very great confusion of his newfound American friends, Jefferson and the Swiss-born Gallatin not included. Gallatin, a man not easily impressed, found the extent of the visitor's reading and scientific knowledge astonishing. "I was delighted," he said, "and swallowed more information of various kinds in less than two hours than I had for two years past in all I had read and heard." In a letter to Jefferson written from Philadelphia a few days earlier, the young man had said, "[I would] love to talk to you about a subject that you have treated so ingeniously in your work on Virginia, the teeth of mammoth, which we too discovered in the Andes." Jefferson had responded immediately and most cordially. "A lively desire will be felt generally to receive the information you will be able to give." In the new capital city, Jefferson wrote, there was "nothing curious to attract the observations of a traveler," which was largely so, save, of course, for Jefferson himself. Upon arrival the young man had found the presidential mansion anything but imposing — crude wooden steps led to the front door, rooms were still unplastered — and at one point he had inadvertently encountered the chief executive sprawled on the floor, wrestling with his grandchildren. But there they were in Washington for several days, two of the most remarkable men of their time, fellow spirits if ever there were, talking, talking endlessly, intensely, their conversation having quickly ranged far from fossil teeth. The young man's name was Humboldt, Alexander von Humboldt — Friedrich Wilhelm Karl Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt — or Baron von Humboldt, as he was commonly addressed. He had been born in Berlin on September 14, 1769, the second son of a middle-aged army officer, a minor figure in the court of Frederick the Great, and of a rather solemn, domineering young woman of Huguenot descent who had inherited a sizable fortune. He was a baron in about the way some Southerners are colonels. William Burwell, Jefferson's private secretary, described him as looking considerably younger than his age, "of small figure, well made, agreeable looks, simple unaffected manners, remarkably sprightly." And Humboldt's passport, issued in Paris in 1798, has him five feet, eight inches tall, with "light-brown hair, gray eyes, large nose, rather large mouth, well-formed chin, open forehead marked by smallpox." However, in a portrait by Peale, done shortly after the trip to see Jefferson, the eyes are as blue as Dutch tiles. Years later, when the phenomenon of Humboldt had become known the world over, the learned and curious would journey thousands of miles for the chance to see him, and his published works would be taken as the gospel of a new age. He would be regarded as the incomparable high priest of nineteenth-century science — a towering godlike inspiration to such a disparate assortment of individuals as John Charles Frémont, John James Audubon, John Lloyd Stephens, Sir Charles Lyell, Simón Bolívar, W. H. Hudson, William Hickling Prescott, Edward Whymper, Charles Darwin, Louis Agassiz. Darwin, during the voyage of the Beagle, would carry with him three inspirational books — the Bible, Milton, and Humboldt. But at this point the name Humboldt meant very little. The honorary citizenships, the countless decorations, were all still to come. No Pacific Ocean current, no bay or glacier or river had been named for him as yet, no mountains in China. Humboldt, Kansas, and Humboldt, Iowa, were still prairie grass, part of that incomprehensibly vast piece of the continent purchased by Jefferson from Napoleon only the year before and that Jefferson had just sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to investigate. So it was the young man himself, not a reputation, and the story he had to tell that captivated everyone. After nearly five years he had returned from one of the great scientific odysseys of all time. It was a journey that would capture the imagination of the age, but that has been strangely forgotten in our own time. It is doubtful that one educated American in ten today could say who exactly Humboldt was or what he did, not even, possibly, in Humboldt, Iowa, or Humboldt, Kansas. Perhaps this is because his travels were through Spanish America. Perhaps his extraordinary accomplishments were simply overshadowed by the popular impact of the Lewis and Clark expedition. In any event, his was a journey of enormous scientific consequence (far more so than the Lewis and Clark expedition) and a fascinating adventure by any standards. In the company of a young French medical doctor turned botanist, Aime Bonpland, Humboldt had departed from La Coruña, Spain, in June 1799, on a Spanish frigate, slipping past a British blockade in the dark of night, in the midst of a storm, and carrying with him a unique document from the Spanish government. He and Bonpland had been granted complete freedom to explore — for scientific purposes — any or all of Spain's largely unexplored American colonies; to make astronomical observations, maps; to collect; to go wherever they wished, speak to whomever they wished. The whole arrangement was quite unprecedented (prior to this Spain had rigorously denied any such travels by foreigners), and it had come about quite by chance. Humboldt, after completing his education and serving as a government inspector of mines in Prussia, had decided to lead his own far-flung scientific expedition. Just where was an open question, but both of his parents had died, with the result that he had become a man of ample private means and was free to do whatever he wished. His impulse had been to go to Egypt, to catch up with Napoleon's troops there. But he and Bonpland (whom he had met by chance in Paris) had proceeded no farther than Spain when Humboldt, during an audience with Charles IV, expressed an interest in His Catholic Majesty's overseas empire. An expedition, to be paid for by Humboldt, was immediately and most unexpectedly sanctioned, and the two young men were on their way. The ship followed Co

Life is absurd — but that's no reason for despair, argues contemporary philosopher Thomas Nagel. This article discusses why he believes humor to be the best way to cope with being human.