In a secularising world, art has replaced religion as a touchstone of our reverence and devotion.
ALAIN DE BOTTONTo one’s enemies: “I hate myself more than you ever could.
More Alain de Botton Quotes
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Most victories are, in the best way, acts of revenge.
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As adults, we try to develop the character traits that would have rescued our parents.
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When I see someone like Richard Dawkins, I see my father. I grew up with that. I’m basically the child of Richard Dawkins.
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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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I am in general a very pessimistic person with an optimistic, day to day take on things. The bare facts of life are utterly terrifying. And yet, one can laugh. Indeed, one has to laugh precisely because of the darkness: the nervous laughter of the trenches.
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Perhaps it is true that we do not really exist until there is someone there to see us existing, we cannot properly speak until there is someone who can understand what we are saying in essence, we are not wholly alive until we are loved.
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When Proust urges us to evaluate the world properly, he repeatedly reminds us of the value of modest scenes.
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One of the best protections against disappointment is to have a lot going on.
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Dreams reveal we never quite get ‘over’ anything: it’s all still in there somewhere.
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The longing for destiny is nowhere stronger than in our romantic life.
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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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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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It is by finding out what something is not that one comes closest to understanding what it is.
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One rarely falls in love without being as much attracted to what is interestingly wrong with someone as what is objectively healthy.
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Sweetness is the opposite of machismo, which is everywhere-and I really don’t get on with machismo. I’m interested in sensitivity, and weakness, and fear, and anxiety, because I think that, at the end of the day, behind our masks, that’s what we are.
ALAIN DE BOTTON