Quote

Objectively good spaces to work rarely end up being so in their faultlessness, quiet and well-equipped studios have a habit of rendering the fear of failure overwhelming. Original thoughts are like shy animals. We sometimes have to look the other way - towards a busy street or terminal - before they run out of their burrows.

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
Well
Thoughts
Towards
Equipped
Looks
Animal
Street
Spaces
Sometimes
Space
Busy
Shy
Work
Fear
Animals
Overwhelming
Way
Running
Failure
Rarely
Burrows
Good
Ends
Habit
Studios
Objectively
Like
Look
Quiet
Originals
Terminal
Wells
Streets
Original
Rendering

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Rather than getting more spoilt with age, as difficulties pile up, epiphanies of gratitude abound.
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I passionately believe that's it's not just what you say that counts, it's also how you say it - that the success of your argument critically depends on your manner of presenting it.
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The study of maps and the perusal of travel books aroused in me a secret fascination that was at times almost irresistible.
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To look at the paper is to raise a seashell to one's ear and to be overwhelmed by the roar of humanity.
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Not being understood may be taken as a sign that there is much in one to understand.
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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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Gaffe-focused journalism: revenge of intelligent people who know true evils are out there but lack the access/time to get to them.
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People who readily accept the need for a gym will resist that their personalities might need some work too.
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A virtuous, ordinary life, striving for wisdom but never far from folly, is achievement enough.
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Year-end financial statements express a truth about office life which is no less irrefutable yet also, in the end, no less irrelevant or irritating than an evolutionary biologist's proud reminder that the purpose of existence lies in the propagation of our genes.
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I feel that the great challenge of our time is the communication of ideas.
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We used to build temples, and museums are about as close as secular society dares to go in facing up to the idea that a good building can change your life (and a bad one ruin it).
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Unnatural to expect that learning to be happy should be any easier than, say, learning to play the violin or require any less practice.
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The true nature of bureaucracy may be nowhere more obvious to the observer than in a developing country, for only there will it still be made manifest by the full complement of documents, files, veneered desks and cabinets - which convey the strict and inverse relationship between productivity and paperwork.
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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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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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It's hard loving those who don't much like themselves: If you're so great, why would you think I'm so great.
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The greatest difficulty of Travel is that one is forced to take oneself along.
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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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In a secularising world, art has replaced religion as a touchstone of our reverence and devotion.
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