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According to Montaigne, it was the oppressive notion that we had complete mental control over our bodies, and the horror of departing from this portrait of normality, that had left the man unable to perform sexually.

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
Notion
Portraits
Control
Unable
Left
Perform
Montaigne
Body
Bodies
Departing
Men
According
Normality
Love
Mental
Oppressive
Complete
Portrait
Horror
Sexually

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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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When Proust urges us to evaluate the world properly, he repeatedly reminds us of the value of modest scenes.
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Endeavoring to purchase something we think beautiful may in fact be the most unimaginative way of dealing with the longing it excites in us, just as trying to sleep with someone may be the bluntest response to a feeling of love.
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Architects themselves tend to shy away from the word, preferring instead to talk about the manipulation of space.
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Paying tax should be framed as a glorious civic duty worthy of gratitude - not a punishment for making money.
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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.
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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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The challenge of modern relationships: how to prove more interesting than the other's smartphone.
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Art cannot single-handedly create enthusiasm... it merely contributes to enthusiasm and guides us to be more conscious of feelings that we might previously have experienced only tentatively or hurriedly.
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Pick up any newspaper or magazine, open the TV, and you'll be bombarded with suggestions of how to have a successful life. Some of these suggestions are deeply unhelpful to our own projects and priorities - and we should take care.
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Dreams reveal we never quite get 'over' anything: it's all still in there somewhere.
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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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The genius of religions is that they structure the inner life.
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The mind does most of its best thinking when we aren't there. The answers are there in the morning.
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The moment we cry in a film is not when things are sad but when they turn out to be more beautiful than we expected them to be.
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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 keep a special place in our hearts for people who refuse to be impressed by us.
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To cut out every negative root would simultaneously mean choking off positive elements that might arise from it further up the stem of the plant. We should not feel embarrassed by our difficulties, only by our failure to grow anything beautiful from them.
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For all his understanding of worldly concerns, when it came to fathoming the deeper meaning of his own furious activity, Sir Bob displayed the sort of laziness for which he himself had no patience in others. He appeared to have only a passing interest in the overall purpose of his financial accumulation.
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