Kant and Hegel are interesting thinkers. But I am happy to insist that they are also terrible writers.
ALAIN DE BOTTONLiterature is the greatest reality simulator – a machine that puts you through infinitely more situations than you can ever directly witness.
More Alain de Botton Quotes
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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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Most good thinking has its origin in fear.
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Bitterness: anger that forgot where it came from.
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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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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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Because the rhythm of conversation makes no allowance for dead periods, because the presence of others calls for continuous responses, we are left to regret the inanity of what we say, and the missed opportunity of what we do not.
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There’s a whole category of people who miss out by not allowing themselves to be weird enough.
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The difference between hope and despair is a different way of telling stories from the same facts.
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It’s hard loving those who don’t much like themselves: “If you’re so great, why would you think I’m so great.
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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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As we write, so we build: to keep a record of what matters to us.
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You have to be quite heavily invested in someone to do them the honour of telling them you’re annoyed with them.
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As an atheist, I think there are lots of things religions get up to which are of value to non-believers – and one of those things is trying to be a bit better than we normally manage to be.
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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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The finest proof of our loyalty toward one another was our monstrous disloyalties towards everyone else.
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