Literature deeply stands opposed to the dominant value system-the one that rewards money and power. Writers are on the other side-they make us sympathetic to ideas and feelings that are of deep importance but can’t afford airtime in a commercialized, status-consciou s, and cynical world.
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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One’s doing well if age improves even slightly one’s capacity to hold on to that vital truism: “This too shall pass.
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Most anger stems from feelings of weakness, sadness and fear: hard to remember when one is at the receiving end of its defiant roar.
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The flawless object throws into perspective the mediocrity that surrounds it. We are reminded of the way we would wish things always to be and of how incomplete our lives remain.
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Once I began to consider everything as being of potential interest, objects released latent layers of value.
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Don’t despair: despair suggests you are in total control and know what is coming. You don’t – surrender to events with hope.
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I went to church and couldn’t swallow it. The music was nice but I don’t belong there.
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We should read other people’s books in order to learn what we feel; it is our own thoughts we should be developing, even if it is another writer’s thought that help us to do so.
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Literature deserves its prestige for one reason above all others – because it’s a tool to help us live and die with a little bit more wisdom, goodness, and sanity.
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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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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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If one felt successful, there’d be so little incentive to be successful.
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In the works of Lucretius, we find two reasons why we shouldn’t worry about death. If you have had a successful life, Lucretius tell us, there’s no reason to mind its end. And, if you haven’t had a good time, “Why do you seek to add more years, which would also pass but ill?”
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Maturity: knowing where you’re crazy, trying to warn others of the fact and striving to keep yourself under control.
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There is real danger of a disconnect between what’s on your business card and who you are deep inside, and it’s not a disconnect that the world is ready to be patient with.
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The largest part of what we call ‘personality’ is determined by how we’ve opted to defend ourselves against anxiety and sadness”.
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