Our responses to the world are crucially moulded by the company we keep, for we temper our curiosity to fit in with the expectations of others.
ALAIN DE BOTTONUnhappiness can stem from having only one perspective to play with.
More Alain de Botton Quotes
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Endeavoring to purchase something we think beautiful may in fact be the most unimaginative way of dealing with the longing it excites in us, just as trying to sleep with someone may be the bluntest response to a feeling of love.
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Sweetness is the opposite of machismo, which is everywhere-and I really don’t get on with machismo. I’m interested in sensitivity, and weakness, and fear, and anxiety, because I think that, at the end of the day, behind our masks, that’s what we are.
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What kills us isn’t one big thing, but thousands of tiny obligations we can’t turn down for fear of disappointing others.
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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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Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than moving planes, ships or trains.
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Every realistic picture represents a choice as to which features of reality should be given prominence; no painting ever captures the whole.
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Curiosity might be pictured as being made up of chains of small questions extending outwards, sometimes over huge distances, from a central hub composed of a few blunt, large questions.
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Good books put a finger on emotions that are deeply our own – but that we could never have described on our own.
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You normally have to be bashed about a bit by life to see the point of daffodils, sunsets and uneventful nice days.
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There is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life.
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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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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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Bitterness: anger that forgot where it came from.
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Unhappiness can stem from having only one perspective to play with.
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The longing for destiny is nowhere stronger than in our romantic life.
ALAIN DE BOTTON