People who readily accept the need for a gym will resist that their personalities might need some work too.
ALAIN DE BOTTONThere is a devilishly direct relationship between the significance of an idea and how nervous we become at the prospect of having to think about it.
More Alain de Botton Quotes
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We need a home in the psychological sense as much as we need one in the physical: to compensate for a vulnerability.
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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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I feel that the great challenge of our time is the communication of ideas.
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Cynics are – beneath it all – only idealists with awkwardly high standards.
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In a secularising world, art has replaced religion as a touchstone of our reverence and devotion.
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The good parent: someone who doesn’t mind, for a time, being hated by their children.
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Intuition is unconscious accumulated experience informing judgement in real time.
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A virtuous, ordinary life, striving for wisdom but never far from folly, is achievement enough.
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Our minds are susceptible to the influence of external voices telling us what we require to be satisfied, voices that may drown out the faint sounds emitted by our souls and distract us from the careful, arduous task of accurately naming our priorities.
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The mind may be reluctant to think properly when thinking is all it is supposed to do; the task can be as paralysing as having to tell a joke or mimic an accent on demand.
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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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He did not mean to depress us, rather to free us from expectations which inspire bitterness. It is consoling, when love has let us down, to hear that happiness was never part of the plan.
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We need objects to remind us of the commitments we’ve made. That carpet from Morocco reminds us of the impulsive, freedom-loving side of ourselves we’re in danger of losing touch with. Beautiful furniture gives us something to live up to. All designed objects are propaganda for a way of life.
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William James once made an acute point about the relationship between happiness and expectation. He argued that satisfaction with ourselves does not require us to succeed in every endeavour.
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It is by finding out what something is not that one comes closest to understanding what it is.
ALAIN DE BOTTON