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So many complaints boil down to the belly ache of the fragile, mortal, ignored ego in a vast and indifferent universe.

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
Universe
Belly
Many
Mortal
Ignored
Indifferent
Fragile
Mortals
Boil
Ego
Ache
Vast
Complaints

More quotes by Alain de Botton

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There is a devilishly direct relationship between the significance of an idea and how nervous we become at the prospect of having to think about it.
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Work finally begins when the fear of doing nothing exceeds the fear of doing it badly.
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A virtuous, ordinary life, striving for wisdom but never far from folly, is achievement enough.
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We should read other people's books in order to learn what we feel it is our own thoughts we should be developing, even if it is another writer's thought that help us to do so.
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We are all more intelligent than we are capable, and awareness of the insanity of love has never saved anyone from the disease.
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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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There is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life.
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Only as we mature does affection begin to depend on achievement.
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My writing always came out of a very personal place, out of an attempt to stay sane.
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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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Pegging your contentment to the overall state of the world rather than of your own life: the basis of morality, or a sort of madness?
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We need objects to remind us of the commitments we've made. That carpet from Morocco reminds us of the impulsive, freedom-loving side of ourselves we're in danger of losing touch with. Beautiful furniture gives us something to live up to. All designed objects are propaganda for a way of life.
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Art holds out the promise of inner wholeness.
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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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The pleasure we derive from journeys is perhaps dependent more on the mindset with which we travel than on the destination we travel to.
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A world where a majority had imbibed the lessons implicit within tragic art would be one in which the consequences of our failures would necessarily cease to weigh upon us so heavily.
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It is perhaps when our lives are at their most problematic that we are likely to be most receptive to beautiful things.
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Most victories are, in the best way, acts of revenge.
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True respectability stems not from the will of the majority but from proper reasoning.
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We are presented with an unpleasant choice between either committing to peculiar concepts about immaterial deities or letting go entirely of a host of consoling, subtle or just charming rituals for which we struggle to find equivalents in secular society.
Alain de Botton