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What we find exotic abroad may be what we hunger for in vain at home.

Alain de Botton

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Alain de Botton
Age: 55
Born: 1969
Born: December 20
Journalist
Philosopher
Publisher
Writer
City of Zurich
Alain De Botton
Exotic
Abroad
Vain
Hunger
Home
May
Find

More quotes by Alain de Botton

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How do the stems connect to the roots?' 'Where is the mist coming from?' 'Why does one tree seem darker than another?' These questions are implicitly asked and answered in the process of sketching.
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Choosing a spouse and a choosing career: the two great decisions for which society refuses to set up institutional guidance.
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...if the beginnings of love and amorous politics are equally rosy, then the ends may be equally bloody.
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One kind of good book should leave you asking: how did the author know that about me?
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True respectability stems not from the will of the majority but from proper reasoning.
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In the gap between who we wish one day to be and who we are at present, must come pain, anxiety, envy and humiliation.
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Man seems merely dust postponed: the sublime as an encounter - pleasurable, intoxicating, even - with human weakness in the face of strength, age and size of the universe.
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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 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.
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The best cure for one's bad tendencies is to see them in action in another person.
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The media insists on taking what someone didn't mean to say as being far closer to the truth than what they did.
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The telephone becomes an instrument of torture in the demonic hands of a beloved who doesn't call.
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Getting to the top has an unfortunate tendency to persuade people that the system is OK after all.
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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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Only as we mature does affection begin to depend on achievement.
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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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Once I began to consider everything as being of potential interest, objects released latent layers of value.
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For paranoia about 'what other people think' : remember that only some hate, a very few love - and almost all just don't care.
Alain de Botton
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Rather than saying 'I hate mess', it might draw more compassion to say, 'mess terrifies me as a harbinger of catastrophe'.
Alain de Botton
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How generous was it to offer gifts to people one knew would never accept them?
Alain de Botton