Quote

The lesson? To respond to the unexpected and hurtful behavior of others with something more than a wipe of the glasses, to see it as a chance to expand our understanding.

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
Something
Lesson
Unexpected
Glasses
Lessons
Behavior
Hurtful
Understanding
Wipe
Chance
Expand
Others
Respond

More quotes by Alain de Botton

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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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In the works of Lucretius, we find two reasons why we shouldn't worry about death. If you have had a successful life, Lucretius tell us, there's no reason to mind its end. And, if you haven't had a good time, Why do you seek to add more years, which would also pass but ill?
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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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Only as we mature does affection begin to depend on achievement.
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Love is an incurable disease. In love, there is permanent suffering. Those who love and those who are happy are not the same.
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If our lives are dominated by a search for happiness, then perhaps few activities reveal as much about the dynamics of this quest - in all its ardour and paradoxes - than our travels.
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There are selections so acute that they come to define a place, with the result that we can no longer travel through that landscape without being reminded of what a great artist noticed there.
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Reputation matters so much only because people so seldom think for themselves.
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A 'good job' can be both practically attractive while still not good enough to devote your entire life to.
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It is perhaps sad books that best console us when we are sad, and to lonely service stations that we should drive when there is no one for us to hold or love.
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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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Taking architecture seriously therefore makes some singular and strenuous demands upon us...It means conceding that we are inconveniently vulnerable to the colour of our wallpaper and that our sense of purpose may be derailed by an unfortunate bedspread
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As victims of hurt, we frequently don't bring up what ails us, because so many wounds look absurd in the light of day.
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We accept the need to train extensively to fly a plane but think instinct should be enough for marrying and raising kids.
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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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Religions are so subtle, so complicated, so intelligent in many ways that they're not fit to be abandoned to the religious alone they're for all of us.
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Everyone returns us to a different sense of ourselves, for we become a little of who they think we are.
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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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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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Unhappiness can stem from having only one perspective to play with.
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