Being content is perhaps no less easy than playing the violin well: and requires no less practice.
ALAIN DE BOTTONBecause the rhythm of conversation makes no allowance for dead periods, because the presence of others calls for continuous responses, we are left to regret the inanity of what we say, and the missed opportunity of what we do not.
More Alain de Botton Quotes
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Differ though we might with Christianity’s view of what precisely our souls need, it is hard to discredit the provocative underlying thesis.
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Memory is… similar to anticipation: an instrument of simplification and selection.
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I feel that the great challenge of our time is the communication of ideas.
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When you look at the Moon, you think, ‘I’m really small. What are my problems?’ It sets things into perspective. We should all look at the Moon a bit more often.
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The inability to live in the present lies in the fear of leaving the sheltered position of anticipation or memory, and so of admitting that this is the only life that one is ever likely (heavenly intervention aside) to live.
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We should not feel embarrassed by our difficulties, only by our failure to grow anything beautiful from them.
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One’s doing well if age improves even slightly one’s capacity to hold on to that vital truism: “This too shall pass.
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Every adult life could be said to be defined by two great love stories: the story of our quest for sexual love and the story of our quest for love from the world.
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Cynics are – beneath it all – only idealists with awkwardly high standards.
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Do you love me enough that I may be weak with you? Everyone loves strength, but do you love me for my weakness? That is the real test.
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We will cease to be angry once we cease to be so hopeful.
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The difference between hope and despair is a different way of telling stories from the same facts.
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We read the weird tales in newspapers to crowd out the even weirder stuff inside us.
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The challenge for a human now is to be more interesting to another than his or her smartphone.
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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.
ALAIN DE BOTTON