It 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.
ALAIN DE BOTTONWe 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.
More Alain de Botton Quotes
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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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The more closely we analyze what we consider ‘sexy,’ the more clearly we will understand that eroticism is the feeling of excitement we experience at finding another human being who shares our values and our sense of the meaning of existence.
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We are all more intelligent than we are capable, and awareness of the insanity of love has never saved anyone from the disease.
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Most of what makes a book ‘good’ is that we are reading it at the right moment for us.
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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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Literature is the greatest reality simulator – a machine that puts you through infinitely more situations than you can ever directly witness.
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If our lives are dominated by a search for happiness, then perhaps few activities reveal as much about the dynamics of this quest – in all its ardour and paradoxes – than our travels.
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Only as we mature does affection begin to depend on achievement.
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Most good thinking has its origin in fear.
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Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than moving planes, ships or trains.
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Work finally begins when the fear of doing nothing exceeds the fear of doing it badly.
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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.
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How generous was it to offer gifts to people one knew would never accept them?
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Our greatest furies spring from events which violate our sense of the ground of our existence.
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We keep a special place in our hearts for people who refuse to be impressed by us.
ALAIN DE BOTTON