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The inability to live in the present lies in the fear of leaving the sheltered position of anticipation or memory, and so of admitting that this is the only life that one is ever likely (heavenly intervention aside) to live.
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
Live
Memory
Admitting
Life
Lies
Intervention
Memories
Anticipation
Position
Inability
Present
Aside
Lying
Heavenly
Fear
Likely
Ever
Leaving
Sheltered
More quotes by Alain de Botton
The only possible way to begin a book is to tell oneself that its eventual failure is guaranteed — but survivable.
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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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It is by finding out what something is not that one comes closest to understanding what it is.
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We need a home in the psychological sense as much as we need one in the physical: to compensate for a vulnerability. We need a refuge to shore up our states of mind, because so much of the world is opposed to our allegiances. We need our rooms to align us to desirable versions of ourselves and to keep alive the important, evanescent sides of us.
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We should keep a careful diary of our moments of envy: they are our covert guides to what we should try to do next.
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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.
Alain de Botton
Wealth is not an absolute. It is relative to desire. Every time we yearn for something we cannot afford, we grow poorer, whatever our resources. And every time we feel satisfied with what we have, we can be counted as rich, however little we may actually possess.
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We don't really learn anything properly until there is a problem, until we are in pain, until something fails to go as we had hoped ... We suffer, therefore we think.
Alain de Botton
A 'good job' can be both practically attractive while still not good enough to devote your entire life to.
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Bad art might be defined as a series of bad choices about what to show and what to leave out.
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Being funny should be an incidental byproduct of trying to get to something truthful, not a destination in itself.
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The materialistic view of happiness of our age starkly revealed in our understanding of the word luxury.
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I am conscious of trying to stretch the boundaries of non-fiction writing. It's always surprised me how little attention many non-fiction writers pay to the formal aspects of their work.
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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.
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Most of us still caged within careers chosen for us by our not entirely worldly 18-22 year old selves.
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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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Arguments are like eels: however logical, they may slip from the minds weak grasp unless fixed there by imagery and style.
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To be shown love is to feel ourselves the object of concern: our presence is noted, our name is registered, our views are listened to, our failings are treated with indulgence and our needs are ministered to. And under such care, we flourish.
Alain de Botton
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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The largest part of what we call 'personality' is determined by how we've opted to defend ourselves against anxiety and sadness.
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