Quote

He was marked out by his relentless ability to find fault with others' mediocrity - suggesting that a certain type of intelligence may be at heart nothing more or less than a superior capacity for dissatisfaction.

Alain de Botton

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Alain de Botton
Age: 54
Born: 1969
Born: December 20
Journalist
Philosopher
Publisher
Writer
City of Zurich
Alain De Botton
Heart
Type
Relentless
Ability
Mediocrity
Less
Superior
Others
Fault
Certain
Superiors
May
Faults
Dissatisfaction
Find
Intelligence
Suggesting
Nothing
Capacity
Marked

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The only way to be happy is to realise how much depends on how you look at things
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Many moments in religion seem attractive to me even though I can't believe in any of it.
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One wants never to give up this crystalline perspective. One wants to keep counterpositioning home with what one knows of alternative realities, as they exist in Tunis or Hyderabad. One wants never to forget that nothing here is normal, that the streets are different in Wisebaden, and Louyang, that this is just one of many possible worlds.
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Most of our childhood is stored not in photos, but in certain biscuits, lights of day, smells, textures of carpet.
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The longing for destiny is nowhere stronger than in our romantic life.
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We should not feel embarrassed by our difficulties, only by our failure to grow anything beautiful from them.
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Writing isn’t a career choice. It’s self-medication that over time precipitates the madness it was meant to ward off.
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to design means forcing ourselves to unlearn what we believe we already know, patiently to take apart the mechanisms behind our reflexes and to acknowledge the mystery and stupefying complexity of everyday gestures like switching off a light of turning on a tap
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The challenge of modern relationships: how to prove more interesting than the other's smartphone.
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Being content is perhaps no less easy than playing the violin well: and requires no less practice.
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I assemble my ideas in pieces on a computer file, then gradually find a place for them on a piece of scaffolding I erect.
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Do you love me enough that I may be weak with you? Everyone loves strength, but do you love me for my weakness? That is the real test.
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We should not be frightened by appearances.
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The only possible way to begin a book is to tell oneself that its eventual failure is guaranteed — but survivable.
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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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How generous was it to offer gifts to people one knew would never accept them?
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I think people want to get married to end their emotional uncertainty. In a way, they want to end powerful feelings, or certainly the negative ones.
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One of the best protections against disappointment is to have a lot going on.
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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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It would be foolish to describe the logistics hub as merely ugly, for it has the horrifying, soulless, immaculate beauty characteristic of many of the workplaces of the modern world.
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