The only way to be happy is to realise how much depends on how you look at things
ALAIN DE BOTTONMemory is… similar to anticipation: an instrument of simplification and selection.
More Alain de Botton Quotes
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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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We keep a special place in our hearts for people who refuse to be impressed by us.
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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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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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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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Curiosity takes ignorance seriously – and is confident enough to admit when it’s in the dark. It is aware of not knowing. And then it sets out to do something about it.
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It is perhaps when our lives are at their most problematic that we are likely to be most receptive to beautiful things.
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Forcing people to eat together is an effective way to promote tolerance.
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The greatest difficulty of Travel is that one is forced to take oneself along.
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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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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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We should not feel embarrassed by our difficulties, only by our failure to grow anything beautiful from them.
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Serious journalists often imagine society is adrift because people don’t know certain things.
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…if the beginnings of love and amorous politics are equally rosy, then the ends may be equally bloody.
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One of our major flaws, and causes of unhappiness, is that we find it hard to take note of appreciate and be grateful for what is always around us. We suffer because we lose sight of the value of what is before us and yearn, often unfairly, for the imagined attraction elsewhere.
ALAIN DE BOTTON