As we write, so we build: to keep a record of what matters to us.
ALAIN DE BOTTON
We should not feel embarrassed by our difficulties, only by our failure to grow anything beautiful from them.
More Alain de Botton Quotes
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As we write, so we build: to keep a record of what matters to us.
ALAIN DE BOTTON -
Because the rhythm of conversation makes no allowance for dead periods, because the presence of others calls for continuous responses, we are left to regret the inanity of what we say, and the missed opportunity of what we do not.
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Booksellers are the most valuable destination for the lonely, given the numbers of books that were written because authors couldn’t find anyone to talk to.
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What we seek, at the deepest level, is inwardly to resemble, rather than physically to possess, the objects and places that touch us through their beauty.
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There is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life.
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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.
ALAIN DE BOTTON -
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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Envy: a confused, tangled guide to one’s own ambitions.
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Anyone who isn’t embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn’t learning enough.
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We should read other people’s books in order to learn what we feel; it is our own thoughts we should be developing, even if it is another writer’s thought that help us to do so.
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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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How generous was it to offer gifts to people one knew would never accept them?
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The best cure for one’s bad tendencies is to see them in action in another person.
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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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One of the better guarantors of ending up in a good relationship: an advanced capacity to be alone.
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We each appear to hold within ourselves a range of divergent views as to our native qualities.. And amid such uncertainty, we typically turn to the wider world to settle the question of our significance.. we seem beholden to affections of others to endure ourselves.
ALAIN DE BOTTON