Because it’s bad enough not getting what you want, but it’s even worse to have an idea of what it is you want and find out at the end of the journey that it isn’t, in fact, what you wanted all along.
ALAIN DE BOTTONLiterature 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.
More Alain de Botton Quotes
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Good books put a finger on emotions that are deeply our own – but that we could never have described on our own.
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We will cease to be angry once we cease to be so hopeful.
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We are not always humiliated by failing; we are humiliated only if we first invest our pride and sense of worth in a given achievement and then do not reach it.
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After 40 (old age for most of man’s history), one should strive to be more or less packed and ready to go were the end call to come.
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Insomnia is a glamorous term for thoughts you forgot to have in the day.
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True respectability stems not from the will of the majority but from proper reasoning.
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Unhappiness can stem from having only one perspective to play with.
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Kant and Hegel are interesting thinkers. But I am happy to insist that they are also terrible writers.
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People who readily accept the need for a gym will resist that their personalities might need some work too.
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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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Forgiveness requires a sense that bad behaviour is a sign of suffering rather than malice.
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Our minds are susceptible to the influence of external voices telling us what we require to be satisfied, voices that may drown out the faint sounds emitted by our souls and distract us from the careful, arduous task of accurately naming our priorities.
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Feeling lost, crazy and desperate belongs to a good life as much as optimism, certainty and reason.
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The challenge of modern relationships: how to prove more interesting than the other’s smartphone.
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There is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life.
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