Quote

Our minds are susceptible to the influence of external voices telling us what we require to be satisfied, voices that may drown out the faint sounds emitted by our souls and distract us from the careful, arduous task of accurately naming our priorities.

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
Telling
Voices
Naming
Minds
Priorities
Distract
Influence
Task
Accurately
Sound
Sounds
Susceptible
Voice
Souls
Drown
May
Satisfied
Faint
Soul
Tasks
External
Emitted
Mind
Careful
Require
Arduous

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Bad architecture is in the end as much a failure of psychology as of design. It is an example expressed through materials of the same tendencies which in other domains will lead us to marry the wrong people, choose inappropriate jobs and book unsuccessful holidays: the tendency not to understand who we are and what will satisfy us.
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To cut out every negative root would simultaneously mean choking off positive elements that might arise from it further up the stem of the plant. We should not feel embarrassed by our difficulties, only by our failure to grow anything beautiful from them.
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The greatest difficulty of Travel is that one is forced to take oneself along.
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Don't despair: despair suggests you are in total control and know what is coming. You don't - surrender to events with hope.
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Dreams reveal we never quite get 'over' anything: it's all still in there somewhere.
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Literature deeply stands opposed to the dominant value system-the one that rewards money and power. Writers are on the other side-they make us sympathetic to ideas and feelings that are of deep importance but can’t afford airtime in a commercialized, status-consciou s, and cynical world.
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We read the weird tales in newspapers to crowd out the even weirder stuff inside us.
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