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Unhappiness can stem from having only one perspective to play with.

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
Perspective
Happiness
Play
Stem
Unhappiness

More quotes by Alain de Botton

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Cynics are - beneath it all - only idealists with awkwardly high standards.
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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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as the determinants of high status keep shifting, so, too, naturally, will the triggers of status anxiety be altered.
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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.
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You normally have to be bashed about a bit by life to see the point of daffodils, sunsets and uneventful nice days.
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Sweetness is the opposite of machismo, which is everywhere-and I really don't get on with machismo. I'm interested in sensitivity, and weakness, and fear, and anxiety, because I think that, at the end of the day, behind our masks, that's what we are.
Alain de Botton
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Newspapers are being read all around. The point is not, of course, to glean new information, but rather to coax the mind out of its sleep-induced introspective temper.
Alain de Botton
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The most attractive are not those who allow us to kiss them at once [we soon feel ungrateful] or those who never allow us to kiss them [we soon forget them], but those who coyly lead us between the two extremes.
Alain de Botton
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The longing for destiny is nowhere stronger than in our romantic life.
Alain de Botton
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In Britain, because I live here, I can also run into problems of envy and competition. But all this is just in a day's work for a writer. You can't put stuff out there without someone calling you a complete fool. Oh, well.
Alain de Botton
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One of the best protections against disappointment is to have a lot going on.
Alain de Botton
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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.
Alain de Botton
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Getting to the top has an unfortunate tendency to persuade people that the system is OK after all.
Alain de Botton
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Forcing people to eat together is an effective way to promote tolerance.
Alain de Botton
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Reputation matters so much only because people so seldom think for themselves.
Alain de Botton
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The company of certain people may excite our generosity and sensitivity, while that of others awakens our competitiveness and envy.
Alain de Botton
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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?
Alain de Botton
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Work is most fulfilling when you're at the comfortable, exciting edge of not quite knowing what you are doing.
Alain de Botton
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Never, ever become a writer. It's a nightmare.
Alain de Botton
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The greatest works of art speak to us without knowing us.
Alain de Botton