Because it’s bad enough not getting what you want, but it’s even worse to have an idea of what it is you want and find out at the end of the journey that it isn’t, in fact, what you wanted all along.
ALAIN DE BOTTON
ALAIN DE BOTTON
Alain de Botton on along
Alain de Botton234 quotes“Because it’s bad enough not getting what you want, but it’s even worse to have an idea of what it is you want and find out at the end of the journey that it isn’t, in fact, what you wanted all along.”
More from Alain de Botton
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.
Alain de BottonAlain de Botton 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.
Alain de BottonAlain de Botton The good parent: someone who doesn’t mind, for a time, being hated by their children.
Alain de BottonAlain de Botton Intuition is unconscious accumulated experience informing judgement in real time.
Alain de BottonAlain de Botton He did not mean to depress us, rather to free us from expectations which inspire bitterness. It is consoling, when love has let us down, to hear that happiness was never part of the plan.
Alain de BottonAlain de Botton It is in dialogue with pain that many beautiful things acquire their value. Acquaintance with grief turns out to be one of the more unusual prerequisites of architectural appreciation. We might, quite aside from all other requirements, need to be a little sad before buildings can properly touch us.
Alain de BottonAlain de Botton I learnt to stop fantasising about the perfect job or the perfect relationship because that can actually be an excuse for not living.
Alain de BottonAlain de Botton The activities of drawing, eating and drinking, all involve assimilations by the self of desirable elements from the world, a transfer of goodness from without to within.
Alain de BottonAlain de Botton Paying tax should be framed as a glorious civic duty worthy of gratitude – not a punishment for making money.
Alain de BottonAlain de Botton What I want to argue for is not that we should give up on our ideas of success, but that we should make sure that they are our own. We should focus in on our ideas and make sure that we own them, that we’re truly the authors of our own ambitions.
Alain de BottonAlain de Botton Bitterness: anger that forgot where it came from.
Alain de BottonAlain de Botton A danger of travel is that we see things at the wrong time, before we have had a chance to build up the necessary receptivity and when new information is therefore as useless and fugitive as necklace beads without a connecting chain.
Alain de BottonAlain de Botton Social media has lots of benefits, but compared to Christianity, it tends to group people by interests. Religion puts you with people who have nothing in common except that you’re human.
Alain de BottonAlain de Botton We need objects to remind us of the commitments we’ve made. That carpet from Morocco reminds us of the impulsive, freedom-loving side of ourselves we’re in danger of losing touch with. Beautiful furniture gives us something to live up to. All designed objects are propaganda for a way of life.
Alain de BottonAlain de Botton Good sex isn’t just fun, it keeps us sane and happy. Having sex with someone makes us feel wanted, alive and potent.
Alain de BottonAlain de Botton What am I supposed to do here? What am I supposed to think?
Alain de BottonAlain de Botton
Original quotes
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Caught inside my mind trapped between its horrid lines losing precious time.
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Nicole BrownNicole Brown Being with you is familiar, like playing guitar after some time; the theory is there but my fingers have forgotten the chords.
AstaAsta Late-night conservations, Breathtaking memories, and an endless sky full of unseen dazzling stars. That’s how I want to remember us.
AurthurAurthur Nothing is more terrifying than falling in love.
Helena DegnHelena Degn People who cannot see through souls will keep searching for beauty in faces and will never find it.
Shilpa GoelShilpa Goel There is someone out there waiting to love you in all the ways you deserve.
Ashley PrzywolskiAshley Przywolski
Meet the writers
More on along
When I am sad and wearyWhen I think all hope has goneWhen I walk along High HolbornI think of you with nothing on
Adrian MitchellAdrian Mitchell Our prayers run along one road and God’s answers by another, and by and by they meet.
Adoniram JudsonAdoniram Judson I feel that I’d rather know an actors’ work, or have an instinct about them and sit down and have coffee with them, or I’ll see them in something and I’ll see if I can get along with them in some way, shape, or form.
Adam RappAdam Rapp Help along one another’s projects and plans.
Abdu'l-BahaAbdu'l-Baha The many of us who attain what we may and forget those who help us along the line we’ve got to remember that there are so many others to pull along the way. The farther they go, the further we all go.
Jackie RobinsonJackie Robinson No matter what anyone says, no matter the excuse or explanation, whatever a person does in the end is what he intended to do all along.
Cus D'AmatoCus D'Amato If you have a surreal life like I do, you’ve got to have fun along the way.
Victoria BeckhamVictoria Beckham Get thee behind me Satan, and push me along. I’m kin to the devil.
Eazy-EEazy-E