Taking photographs can assuage the itch for possession sparked by the beauty of a place; our anxiety over losing a precious scene can decline with every click of the shutter.
ALAIN DE BOTTONThe 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.
More Alain de Botton Quotes
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We will cease to be angry once we cease to be so hopeful.
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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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In the gap between who we wish one day to be and who we are at present, must come pain, anxiety, envy and humiliation.
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Everyone wants a better life: very few of us want to be better people.
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It is striking how much more seriously we are likely to be taken after we have been dead a few centuries.
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There is always the option of being emotionally lazy, that is, of quoting.
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As adults, we try to develop the character traits that would have rescued our parents.
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At the heart of every frustration lies a basic structure: the collision of a wish with an unyielding reality.
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Most good thinking has its origin in fear.
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There are selections so acute that they come to define a place, with the result that we can no longer travel through that landscape without being reminded of what a great artist noticed there.
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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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We are presented with an unpleasant choice between either committing to peculiar concepts about immaterial deities or letting go entirely of a host of consoling, subtle or just charming rituals for which we struggle to find equivalents in secular society.
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We need objects to remind us of the commitments we’ve made. That carpet from Morocco reminds us of the impulsive, freedom-loving side of ourselves we’re in danger of losing touch with. Beautiful furniture gives us something to live up to. All designed objects are propaganda for a way of life.
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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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Politics is so difficult, it’s generally only people who aren’t quite up to the task who feel convinced they are.
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