The flawless object throws into perspective the mediocrity that surrounds it. We are reminded of the way we would wish things always to be and of how incomplete our lives remain.
ALAIN DE BOTTONMost anger stems from feelings of weakness, sadness and fear: hard to remember when one is at the receiving end of its defiant roar.
More Alain de Botton Quotes
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Our homes do not have to offer us permanent occupancy or store our clothes to merit the name. To speak of home in relation to a building is simply to recognise its harmony with our own prized internal song. Home can be an airport or a library, a garden or a motorway diner.
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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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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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When I see someone like Richard Dawkins, I see my father. I grew up with that. I’m basically the child of Richard Dawkins.
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The media insists on taking what someone didn’t mean to say as being far closer to the truth than what they did.
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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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There may be significant things to learn about people by looking at what annoys them most.
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Work finally begins when the fear of doing nothing exceeds the fear of doing it badly.
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Unhappiness can stem from having only one perspective to play with.
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We need a refuge to shore up our states of mind, because so much of the world is opposed to our allegiances. We need our rooms to align us to desirable versions of ourselves and to keep alive the important, evanescent sides of us.
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The longing for destiny is nowhere stronger than in our romantic life.
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We envy only those whom we feel ourselves to be like; we envy only members of our reference group. There are few successes more unendurable than those of our close friends.
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Never too late to learn some embarrassingly basic, stupidly obvious things about oneself.
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The company of certain people may excite our generosity and sensitivity, while that of others awakens our competitiveness and envy.
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The materialistic view of happiness of our age starkly revealed in our understanding of the word “luxury.
ALAIN DE BOTTON