The greatest works of art speak to us without knowing us.
ALAIN DE BOTTONEvery time we feel satisfied with what we have, we can be counted as rich, however little we may actually possess.
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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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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Arguments are like eels: however logical, they may slip from the minds weak grasp unless fixed there by imagery and style.
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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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Intimacy is the capacity to be rather weird with someone – and finding that that’s ok with them.
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It is perhaps sad books that best console us when we are sad.
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What should worry us is not the number of people that oppose us, but how good their reasons are for doing so.
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We read the weird tales in newspapers to crowd out the even weirder stuff inside us.
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Most victories are, in the best way, acts of revenge.
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Every realistic picture represents a choice as to which features of reality should be given prominence; no painting ever captures the whole.
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Out of the millions of people we live among, most of whom we habitually ignore and are ignored by in turn, there are always a few that hold hostage our capacity for happiness, whom we could recognize by their smell alone and whom we would rather die than be without.
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Forgiveness requires a sense that bad behaviour is a sign of suffering rather than malice.
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It’s perhaps easier now than ever before to make a good living; it’s perhaps harder than ever before to stay calm, to be free of career anxiety.
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You need a long hard day’s work to reveal the logic of the craving for very bad tv and alcohol.
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Because it’s bad enough not getting what you want, but it’s even worse to have an idea of what it is you want and find out at the end of the journey that it isn’t, in fact, what you wanted all along.
ALAIN DE BOTTON