The fear of saying something stupid (which stupid people never have) has censored far more good ideas than bad ones.
ALAIN DE BOTTONPaying tax should be framed as a glorious civic duty worthy of gratitude – not a punishment for making money.
More Alain de Botton Quotes
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Everyone wants a better life: very few of us want to be better people.
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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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People who readily accept the need for a gym will resist that their personalities might need some work too.
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Endeavoring to purchase something we think beautiful may in fact be the most unimaginative way of dealing with the longing it excites in us, just as trying to sleep with someone may be the bluntest response to a feeling of love.
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The greatest difficulty of Travel is that one is forced to take oneself along.
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As victims of hurt, we frequently don’t bring up what ails us, because so many wounds look absurd in the light of day.
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What I want to argue for is not that we should give up on our ideas of success, but that we should make sure that they are our own. We should focus in on our ideas and make sure that we own them, that we’re truly the authors of our own ambitions.
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The longing for destiny is nowhere stronger than in our romantic life.
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Work finally begins when the fear of doing nothing exceeds the fear of doing it badly.
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A successful work will draw out the features capable of exciting a sense of beauty and interest in the spectator.
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Social media has lots of benefits, but compared to Christianity, it tends to group people by interests. Religion puts you with people who have nothing in common except that you’re human.
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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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We study biology, physics, movements of glaciers… Where are the classes on envy, feeling wronged, despair, bitterness.
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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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Insomnia is a glamorous term for thoughts you forgot to have in the day.
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