My writing always came out of a very personal place, out of an attempt to stay sane.
ALAIN DE BOTTONLiterature is the greatest reality simulator – a machine that puts you through infinitely more situations than you can ever directly witness.
More Alain de Botton Quotes
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Every time we feel satisfied with what we have, we can be counted as rich, however little we may actually possess.
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Intimacy is the capacity to be rather weird with someone – and finding that that’s ok with them.
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Rage is caused by a conviction, almost comic in its optimistic origins (however tragic in its effects), that a given frustration has not been written into the contract of life.
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A virtuous, ordinary life, striving for wisdom but never far from folly, is achievement enough.
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Not being understood may be taken as a sign that there is much in one to understand.
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We are not always humiliated by failing; we are humiliated only if we first invest our pride and sense of worth in a given achievement and then do not reach it.
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The company of certain people may excite our generosity and sensitivity, while that of others awakens our competitiveness and envy.
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We are all more intelligent than we are capable, and awareness of the insanity of love has never saved anyone from the disease.
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As victims of hurt, we frequently don’t bring up what ails us, because so many wounds look absurd in the light of day.
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To be shown love is to feel ourselves the object of concern: our presence is noted, our name is registered, our views are listened to, our failings are treated with indulgence and our needs are ministered to. And under such care, we flourish.
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The problem isn’t so much finding good ideas (there is no shortage) as embedding the ones we have into everyday practice.
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Taking photographs can assuage the itch for possession sparked by the beauty of a place; our anxiety over losing a precious scene can decline with every click of the shutter.
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In a secularising world, art has replaced religion as a touchstone of our reverence and devotion.
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Most of our childhood is stored not in photos, but in certain biscuits, lights of day, smells, textures of carpet.
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In the gap between who we wish one day to be and who we are at present, must come pain, anxiety, envy and humiliation.
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