Not being understood may be taken as a sign that there is much in one to understand.
ALAIN DE BOTTONOut of the millions of people we live among, most of whom we habitually ignore and are ignored by in turn, there are always a few that hold hostage our capacity for happiness, whom we could recognize by their smell alone and whom we would rather die than be without.
More Alain de Botton Quotes
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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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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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One of the best protections against disappointment is to have a lot going on.
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Socrates, on being insulted in the marketplace, asked by a passerby, “Don’t you worry about being called names?” retorted, “Why? Do you think I should resent it if an ass had kicked me?
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It is perhaps sad books that best console us when we are sad.
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Never too late to learn some embarrassingly basic, stupidly obvious things about oneself.
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Art cannot single-handedly create enthusiasm… it merely contributes to enthusiasm and guides us to be more conscious of feelings that we might previously have experienced only tentatively or hurriedly.
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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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I learnt to stop fantasising about the perfect job or the perfect relationship because that can actually be an excuse for not living.
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Philosophy had supplied Socrates with convictions in which he had been able to have rational, as opposed to hysterical, confidence when faced with disapproval.
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Mental health: having enough safe places in your mind for your thoughts to settle.
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Our capacity to draw happiness from aesthetic objects or material goods in fact seems critically dependent on our first satisfying a more important range of emotional or psychological needs, among them the need for understanding, for love, expression and respect.
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The longing for a destiny is no nowhere stronger than in our romantic life. All too often forced to share our bed with those who cannot fathom our soul, can we not be forgiven if we believe ourselves fated to stumble one day upon the man or woman of our dreams.
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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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People who readily accept the need for a gym will resist that their personalities might need some work too.
ALAIN DE BOTTON