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

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He did not mean to depress us, rather to free us from expectations which inspire bitterness. It is consoling, when love has let us down, to hear that happiness was never part of the plan.
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Good sex isn't just fun, it keeps us sane and happy. Having sex with someone makes us feel wanted, alive and potent.
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Status anxiety definitely exists at a political level. Many Iraqis were annoyed with the US essentially for reasons of status: for not showing them respect, for humiliating them.
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The problem is if you really believe in a society where those who merit to get to the top, get to the top, you’ll also, by implication … believe in a society where those who deserve to get to the bottom also get to the bottom and stay there.
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The challenge of modern relationships: how to prove more interesting than the other's smartphone.
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It is not just nature that defies us. Human life is as overwhelming... If we spend time in it [the vast spaces of nature], they may help us to accept more graciously the great, unfathomable events that molest our lives and will inevitably return us to dust.
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When you look at the Moon, you think, ‘I’m really small. What are my problems?’ It sets things into perspective. We should all look at the Moon a bit more often.
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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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It is no coincidence that the Western attraction to sublime landscapes developed at precisely the moment when traditional beliefs in God began to wane.
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The longing for a destiny is no nowhere stronger than in our romantic life. All too often forced to share our bed with those who cannot fathom our soul, can we not be forgiven if we believe ourselves fated to stumble one day upon the man or woman of our dreams.
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The fear of saying something stupid (which stupid people never have) has censored far more good ideas than bad ones.
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Rage is caused by a conviction, almost comic in its optimistic origins (however tragic in its effects), that a given frustration has not been written into the contract of life.
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The most attractive are not those who allow us to kiss them at once [we soon feel ungrateful] or those who never allow us to kiss them [we soon forget them], but those who coyly lead us between the two extremes.
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Writing a book has about it some of the anxiety of telling a joke and having to wait several years to know whether or not it was funny.
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True respectability stems not from the will of the majority but from proper reasoning.
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Maturity: knowing where you're crazy, trying to warn others of the fact and striving to keep yourself under control.
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The difference between hope and despair is a different way of telling stories from the same facts.
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Despite the best efforts of critics and the hopes of authors, our tastes in books are probably as inherent & unbudgeable as those in food.
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One's doing well if age improves even slightly one's capacity to hold on to that vital truism: This too shall pass.
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We will cease to be angry once we cease to be so hopeful.
Alain de Botton