Essential Essays about Life

Great writing about life in the modern world

Attitude by Margaret Atwood - You may not be able to alter reality, but you can alter your attitude towards it, and this, paradoxically, alters reality

The Capital T Truth by David Foster Wallace - The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness

How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett - You wake up in the morning, and lo! your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours of the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life!

This Is the Life Annie Dillard - You enjoy work and will love your grandchildren, and somewhere in there you die

The Force That Drives the Flower by Annie Dillard - What is it about fecundity that so appalls? Is it that with nature’s bounty goes a crushing waste that threatens our own cheap lives?

Why Go Out? by Sheila Heti - At home, you can wear your pyjamas. When you’re out, you could be snubbed, or disappointed. The scotch is not cheap.

Delight by Ross Gay - Nourishing need, adult braces, and kissing a very small dog one million times

Scars by David Owen - A life in injuries

The Same River Twice by David Quammen - You cannot step twice into the same river, for other waters are continually flowing on. To most people it comes across as a nice resonant metaphor, a bit of philosophic poetry. To me it is that and more.

How Life Really Works by Philip Ball - Just as I uncovered a new way to understand life, I got news about my own

Does Life Have a Purpose? by Michael Ruse - Nobody expects atoms and molecules to have purposes, so why do we still think of living things in this way?

You Can Be a Materialist and Find Meaning in the Universe by Jessica Tracy - My hard-nosed materialism led me to an existential crisis, but then I realised the difference between science and scientism

The Futile Pursuit of Happiness by Jon Gertner - When it comes to predicting exactly how you will feel in the future, you are most likely wrong

The Radical Implications of Luck in Life by David Roberts - Acknowledging the role of luck is the secular equivalent of religious awakening

The Power of Feedback Loops by Thomas Goetz - Provide people with information about their actions in real time, then give them a chance to change those actions, pushing them toward better behaviors

Take the Easy Route by Jeff Wise - Change is hard. Everybody knows that.

Buy Experiences, Not Things by James Hamblin - New research builds on the vogue mantra of behavioral economics

Failure to Cope “Under Capitalism” by Clare Coffey - We have generational trauma. We are living through a global pandemic. We are literally neurodivergent and a minor. We are riddled with climate grief. We are, for one reason or another, unable to cope.

How Life Became an Endless, Terrible Competition by Daniel Markovits - Meritocracy prizes achievement above all else, making everyone—even the rich—miserable. Maybe there’s a way out.

Why Does It Feel Like Everyone Has More Money Than You? by Jen Doll - Financial help from parents comes in many forms, and it’s the basis of so many success stories. So why do millennials act like it doesn’t exist? Jen Doll examines the myth—and tyranny—of the “self-made” success story.

When Are You Really an Adult? by Julie Beck - In an age when the line between childhood and adulthood is blurrier than ever, what is it that makes people grown up?

Why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead by Chuck Klosterman - Zombies are like the Internet and the media and every conversation we don’t want to have

The Real Roots of Midlife Crisis by Jonathan Rauch - What a growing body of research reveals about the biology of human happiness — and how to navigate the middle age slump

The Day I Got Old by Caitlin Flanagan - It just suddenly happened, and there isn’t a sports car in the world I can buy to make it otherwise

My Taste Is Basic. So What? by Samantha Irby - How three simple words can stop judgmental friends in their tracks

In Praise of Being Washed by Zach Baron - Has a life of ambition and striving gotten the best of you? Do you sometimes wish you could give up a little—stop chasing so many pointless goals you probably won’t hit anyway?

Phoning It In by Stanley Bing - She gave me this long and involved story about a huge slight that was inflicted on her operation by some other entity someplace, and I was looking out the window and thinking, whoa, look at that BMW Z8

No One Cares! by Arthur C. Brooks - Our fears about what other people think of us are overblown

Click through to our full list of 100 Great Articles and Essays about Life!