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.
ALAIN DE BOTTONThe challenge for a human now is to be more interesting to another than his or her smartphone.
More Alain de Botton Quotes
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Man seems merely dust postponed: the sublime as an encounter – pleasurable, intoxicating, even – with human weakness in the face of strength, age and size of the universe.
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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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People only get really interesting when they start to rattle the bars of their cages.
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The pleasure we derive from journeys is perhaps dependent more on the mindset with which we travel than on the destination we travel to.
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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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Our homes do not have to offer us permanent occupancy or store our clothes to merit the name. To speak of home in relation to a building is simply to recognise its harmony with our own prized internal song. Home can be an airport or a library, a garden or a motorway diner.
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Architects themselves tend to shy away from the word, preferring instead to talk about the manipulation of space.
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It is perhaps sad books that best console us when we are sad.
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Artistic accounts involve severe abbreviations of what reality will force upon us.
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To one’s enemies: “I hate myself more than you ever could.
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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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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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If our lives are dominated by a search for happiness, then perhaps few activities reveal as much about the dynamics of this quest – in all its ardour and paradoxes – than our travels.
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For paranoia about ‘what other people think’ : remember that only some hate, a very few love – and almost all just don’t care.
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It is in dialogue with pain that many beautiful things acquire their value. Acquaintance with grief turns out to be one of the more unusual prerequisites of architectural appreciation. We might, quite aside from all other requirements, need to be a little sad before buildings can properly touch us.
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