Only by declaring a book completely finished can one start to see how much remains to be done on it.
ALAIN DE BOTTONNever too late to learn some embarrassingly basic, stupidly obvious things about oneself.
More Alain de Botton Quotes
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What is fascinating about marriage is why anyone wants to get married.
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The materialistic view of happiness of our age starkly revealed in our understanding of the word “luxury.
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The greatest difficulty of Travel is that one is forced to take oneself along.
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Envy: a confused, tangled guide to one’s own ambitions.
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Literature 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.
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The most attractive are not those who allow us to kiss them at once [we soon feel ungrateful] or those who never allow us to kiss them [we soon forget them], but those who coyly lead us between the two extremes.
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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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The need for love hallucinates a prince or princess. The oasis complex is never a complete delusion: the man in the desert does see something on the horizon. It is just that the palms have withered, the well is dry, and the place is infected with locusts.
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We will cease to be angry once we cease to be so hopeful.
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The fear of saying something stupid (which stupid people never have) has censored far more good ideas than bad ones.
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These inventors were elevating the formulation of entrepreneurial ideas to the status of a visionary activity. Though forced to justify their efforts in the pragmatic language of venture capital, they were at heart utopian thinkers intent on transforming the world.
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Do you love me enough that I may be weak with you? Everyone loves strength, but do you love me for my weakness? That is the real test.
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I feel that the great challenge of our time is the communication of ideas.
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The mind may be reluctant to think properly when thinking is all it is supposed to do; the task can be as paralysing as having to tell a joke or mimic an accent on demand.
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Yet often, they know but just don’t care. So the task of serious journalism isn’t just to lay out truths. It is to make vital truths compelling to a big audience.
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