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Work finally begins when the fear of doing nothing exceeds the fear of doing it badly.

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
Work
Exceeds
Exceed
Badly
Begins
Finally
Fear
Nothing
Writing

More quotes by Alain de Botton

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Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than moving planes, ships or trains.
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The desire for high status is never stronger than in situations where ordinary life fails to answer a median need for dignity and comfort.
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The universe is large and we are tiny, without the need for further religious superstructure. One can have so-called spiritual moments without belief in the spirit.
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A great writer picks up on those things that matter. It’s almost like their radar is attuned to the most significant moments.
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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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It is striking how much more seriously we are likely to be taken after we have been dead a few centuries.
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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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Insomnia is a glamorous term for thoughts you forgot to have in the day.
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In a secularising world, art has replaced religion as a touchstone of our reverence and devotion.
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Most good thinking has its origin in fear.
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All tours are filled with humiliation. My publisher once hired a private jet to fly me to a venue where 1,000 people were waiting. It almost bankrupted him.
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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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The difference between hope and despair is a different way of telling stories from the same facts.
Alain de Botton
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A successful work will draw out the features capable of exciting a sense of beauty and interest in the spectator.
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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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Every adult life could be said to be defined by two great love stories: the story of our quest for sexual love and the story of our quest for love from the world.
Alain de Botton
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Rather than employing it as a supplement to active, conscious seeing, they used the medium as a substitute, paying less attention to the world than they had done previously, taking it on faith that photography automatically assured them possession of it.
Alain de Botton
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After 40 (old age for most of man's history), one should strive to be more or less packed and ready to go were the end call to come.
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As adults, we try to develop the character traits that would have rescued our parents.
Alain de Botton
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True respectability stems not from the will of the majority but from proper reasoning.
Alain de Botton