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.
ALAIN DE BOTTONTravel agents would be wiser to ask us what we hope to change about our lives rather than simply where we wish to go.
More Alain de Botton Quotes
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The greatest works of art speak to us without knowing us.
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What is a snob? A snob is anybody who takes a small part of you and uses that to come to a complete vision of who you are. That is snobbery.
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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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Maturity: knowing where you’re crazy, trying to warn others of the fact and striving to keep yourself under control.
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You have to be quite heavily invested in someone to do them the honour of telling them you’re annoyed with them.
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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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Which seems no less relevant in the secular realm than in the religious one-that we have within us a precious, childlike, vulnerable core which we should nourish and nurture on its turbulent journey through life.
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The challenge for a human now is to be more interesting to another than his or her smartphone.
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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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Anyone who isn’t embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn’t learning enough.
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One of the unexpectedly important things that art can do for us is to teach us how to suffer more successfully.
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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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The problem is if you really believe in a society where those who merit to get to the top, get to the top, you’ll also, by implication … believe in a society where those who deserve to get to the bottom also get to the bottom and stay there.
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Newspapers are being read all around. The point is not, of course, to glean new information, but rather to coax the mind out of its sleep-induced introspective temper.
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There is always the option of being emotionally lazy, that is, of quoting.
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