Quote

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 Botton

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Alain de Botton
Age: 55
Born: 1969
Born: December 20
Journalist
Philosopher
Publisher
Writer
City of Zurich
Alain De Botton
Therefore
Beads
Danger
Connecting
Information
Chain
Wrong
Chains
Chance
Useless
Necklace
Without
Travel
Receptivity
Things
Build
Necklaces
Time
Necessary
Fugitive

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People who go on to be writers are those who can forgive themselves the horror of the first draft.
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An argument in a couple: 2 people attempting to introduce each other to important truths - by panicked shouting.
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Must being in love always mean being in pain?
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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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Perhaps it is true that we do not really exist until there is someone there to see us existing, we cannot properly speak until there is someone who can understand what we are saying in essence, we are not wholly alive until we are loved.
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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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Bad architecture is in the end as much a failure of psychology as of design. It is an example expressed through materials of the same tendencies which in other domains will lead us to marry the wrong people, choose inappropriate jobs and book unsuccessful holidays: the tendency not to understand who we are and what will satisfy us.
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There are people who say, 'Oh this guy is quite thick.' I think the reason is that, increasingly, I don't mind being simple in terms of literary expression. Others say, 'No, no, no. He went to Cambridge. He got a good degree. He must be Einstein.'
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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.
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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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Every realistic picture represents a choice as to which features of reality should be given prominence no painting ever captures the whole.
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In the gap between who we wish one day to be and who we are at present, must come pain, anxiety, envy and humiliation.
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You normally have to be bashed about a bit by life to see the point of daffodils, sunsets and uneventful nice days.
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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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The more familiar two people become, the more the language they speak together departs from that of the ordinary, dictionary-defined discourse. Familiarity creates a new language, an in-house language of intimacy that carries reference to the story the two lovers are weaving together and that cannot be readily understood by others.
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Forcing people to eat together is an effective way to promote tolerance.
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One rarely falls in love without being as much attracted to what is interestingly wrong with someone as what is objectively healthy.
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Responsible for wrapping the iron fist of authority in its velvet glove is Jane Axtell, head of the accountancy firm's Human Resources department.
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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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Those who divorce aren't necessarily the most unhappy, just those neatly able to believe their misery is caused by one other person.
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