Paying tax should be framed as a glorious civic duty worthy of gratitude – not a punishment for making money.
ALAIN DE BOTTONOne of the better guarantors of ending up in a good relationship: an advanced capacity to be alone.
More Alain de Botton Quotes
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You need a long hard day’s work to reveal the logic of the craving for very bad tv and alcohol.
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Our disrespect for thinking: someone sitting in a chair, gazing out of a window blankly, always described as ‘doing nothing’.
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How generous was it to offer gifts to people one knew would never accept them?
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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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One kind of good book should leave you asking: how did the author know that about me?
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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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A virtuous, ordinary life, striving for wisdom but never far from folly, is achievement enough.
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As we write, so we build: to keep a record of what matters to us.
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Newspapers are being read all around. The point is not, of course, to glean new information, but rather to coax the mind out of its sleep-induced introspective temper.
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Which seems no less relevant in the secular realm than in the religious one-that we have within us a precious, childlike, vulnerable core which we should nourish and nurture on its turbulent journey through life.
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What is fascinating about marriage is why anyone wants to get married.
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True respectability stems not from the will of the majority but from proper reasoning.
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Though it may feel otherwise, enjoying life is no more dangerous than apprehending it with continuous anxiety and gloom.
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Intuition is unconscious accumulated experience informing judgement in real time.
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Forgiveness requires a sense that bad behaviour is a sign of suffering rather than malice.
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