Most of what makes a book ‘good’ is that we are reading it at the right moment for us.
ALAIN DE BOTTONIt was no longer her absence that wounded me, but my growing indifference to it. Forgetting, however calming, was also a reminder of infidelity to what I had at one time held so dear.
More Alain de Botton Quotes
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If we are inclined to forget how much there is in the world besides that which we anticipate, then works of art are perhaps a little to blame, for in them we find at work the same process of simplification or selection as in the imagination.
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Our greatest furies spring from events which violate our sense of the ground of our existence.
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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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Writing isn’t a career choice. It’s self-medication that over time precipitates the madness it was meant to ward off.
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A notorious inability to express emotions makes human beings the only animals capable of suicide.
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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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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 adults, we try to develop the character traits that would have rescued our parents.
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The good parent: someone who doesn’t mind, for a time, being hated by their children.
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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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It’s perhaps easier now than ever before to make a good living; it’s perhaps harder than ever before to stay calm, to be free of career anxiety.
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To be shown love is to feel ourselves the object of concern: our presence is noted, our name is registered, our views are listened to, our failings are treated with indulgence and our needs are ministered to. And under such care, we flourish.
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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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It is perhaps sad books that best console us when we are sad.
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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 BOTTON