Quote

We each appear to hold within ourselves a range of divergent views as to our native qualities.. And amid such uncertainty, we typically turn to the wider world to settle the question of our significance.. we seem beholden to affections of others to endure ourselves.

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
Quality
Range
Wider
Within
Affection
Settle
Turns
Endure
Settling
Others
Seem
Significance
Beholden
Seems
Hold
Uncertainty
Divergent
World
Views
Qualities
Amid
Question
Native
Affections
Turn
Appear
Typically

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How generous was it to offer gifts to people one knew would never accept them?
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The more dignity is widely and freely available in a society, the less people want to be famous.
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A great writer picks up on those things that matter. It’s almost like their radar is attuned to the most significant moments.
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When work is not going well, it's useful to remember that our identities stretch beyond what is on the business card, that we were people long before we became workers - and will continue to be human once we have put our tools down forever.
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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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We will cease to be angry once we cease to be so hopeful.
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Our minds are susceptible to the influence of external voices telling us what we require to be satisfied, voices that may drown out the faint sounds emitted by our souls and distract us from the careful, arduous task of accurately naming our priorities.
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Insomnia is a glamorous term for thoughts you forgot to have in the day.
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It would scarcely be acceptable, for example, to ask in the course of an ordinary conversation what our society holds to be the purpose of work.
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One of the better guarantors of ending up in a good relationship: an advanced capacity to be alone.
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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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It was no longer her absence that wounded me, but my growing indifference to it. Forgetting, however calming, was also a reminder of infidelity to what I had at one time held so dear.
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We are sensitized by the books we read. And the more books we read, and the deeper their lessons sink into us, the more pairs of glasses we have. And those glasses enable us to see things we would have otherwise missed.
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