The Diary of Anais Nin, Vol. 5: 1947-1955

Anaïs Nin

“As you swim, you are washed of all the excrescences of so-called civilization, which includes the incapacity to be happy under any circumstances.”

For your summer vacation or your weekend, Anaïs Nin on how to unplug and inhabit your senses:

Journal of Delacroix

Hubert Wellington

“Nourish yourself with grand and austere ideas of beauty that feed the soul… Seek solitude.”

Young Delacroix the importance of solitude in creative work and how to resist social distractions – wisdom from 200 years ago today, doubly relevant today:

First and Last Notebooks

Simone Weil

“Never react to an evil in such a way as to augment it.”

Simone Weil on temptation, the key to discipline, and what it means to be a complete human being –enormous wisdom from one of the most incisive minds of the past century:

Ongoingness: The End of a Diary

Sarah Manguso

“Perhaps all anxiety might derive from a fixation on moments — an inability to accept life as ongoing.”

Sarah Manguso on memory, life’s ongoingness, and the true measure of our aliveness — magnificent read:

Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath

John Steinbeck

“Just set one day’s work in front of the last day’s work. That’s the way it comes out. And that’s the only way it does.”

How John Steinbeck used the diary as a tool of discipline, a hedge against self-doubt, and a pacemaker for the heartbeat of creative work:

The Journals of Andre Gide

Andre Gide

“Don’t ever do anything through affectation or to make people like you or through imitation or for the pleasure of contradicting.”

André Gide on sincerity, being vs. appearing, and what it really means to be yourself:

Growing Pains: Diaries and Drawings from The Years 1908-17 (Borealis Books)

Wanda Gag

“There is nothing better for us to do than to take ourselves as we find ourselves and make the best of ourselves.”

Pioneering early-twentieth-century artist, children’s book author, and creative entrepreneur Wanda Gág – who inspired creative icons like Maurice Sendak –on the two selves and how love lays its claim on us:

“Who, What Am I?”: Tolstoy Struggles to Narrate the Self

Irina Paperno

“This is the entire essence of life: Who are you? What are you?”

Young Tolstoy’s diaries and his search of self:

The Journals of André Gide: Volume 1

André Gide

“One should want only one thing and want it constantly. Then one is sure of getting it.”

How to master the vital balance of freedom and restraint – young André Gide’s rules of conduct:

Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963

Susan Sontag

“Stop! I cannot think this fast! Or rather I cannot grow this fast!”

Young Susan Sontag on the pleasures of rereading beloved books, plus her rereading list:

A Writer’s Diary

Fyodor Dostoevsky

“And it is so simple… You will instantly find how to live.”

The day Dostoyevsky discovered the meaning of life in a dream:

The Diary Of Søren Kierkegaard

Søren Kierkegaard

Why haters hate – Kierkegaard explains the psychology of bullying and online trolling in1847:

The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again)

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol on the joy of virtual relationships, long before the internet:

The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath

“No matter what the ideas or conduct of others, there is a unique rightness and beauty to life which can be shared in openness, in wind and sunlight, with a fellow human being who believes in the same basic principles.”

19-year-old Sylvia Plath on the transcendent simplicity and reverence of nature:

The Journal of Joyce Carol Oates: 1973-1982

Joyce Carol Oates

“How lovely this world is, really: one simply has to look.”

Joyce Carol Oates on wonder, consciousness, and the art of beholding beauty: