…if the beginnings of love and amorous politics are equally rosy, then the ends may be equally bloody.
ALAIN DE BOTTONIt’s as though either you accept [religious] doctrine and then you can have all the nice stuff, or you reject the doctrine and you’re living in some kind of spiritual wasteland under the guidance of CNN and Walmart.
More Alain de Botton Quotes
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Intuition is unconscious accumulated experience informing judgement in real time.
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A notorious inability to express emotions makes human beings the only animals capable of suicide.
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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.
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There is always the option of being emotionally lazy, that is, of quoting.
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Our minds are susceptible to the influence of external voices telling us what we require to be satisfied, voices that may drown out the faint sounds emitted by our souls and distract us from the careful, arduous task of accurately naming our priorities.
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Forcing people to eat together is an effective way to promote tolerance.
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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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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 arrogance that says analysing the relationship between reasons and causes is more important than writing a philosophy of shyness or sadness or friendship drives me nuts. I can’t accept that.
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Unhappiness can stem from having only one perspective to play with.
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As an atheist, I think there are lots of things religions get up to which are of value to non-believers – and one of those things is trying to be a bit better than we normally manage to be.
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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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We may seek a fortune for no greater reason than to secure the respect and attention of people who would otherwise look straight through us.
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Feeling lost, crazy and desperate belongs to a good life as much as optimism, certainty and reason.
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Work is most fulfilling when you’re at the comfortable, exciting edge of not quite knowing what you are doing.
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