Quote

It would scarcely be acceptable, for example, to ask in the course of an ordinary conversation what our society holds to be the purpose of work.

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
Course
Asks
Scarcely
Society
Acceptable
Purpose
Holds
Work
Conversation
Would
Ordinary
Example
Courses

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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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Forgiveness requires a sense that bad behaviour is a sign of suffering rather than malice.
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The longing for destiny is nowhere stronger than in our romantic life.
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A 'good job' can be both practically attractive while still not good enough to devote your entire life to.
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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.
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Happiness may be difficult to obtain. The obstacles are not primarily financial.
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I feel that the great challenge of our time is the communication of ideas.
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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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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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Although I don't believe in God, Bach's music shows me what a love of God must feel like.
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True respectability stems not from the will of the majority but from proper reasoning.
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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'.
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The mind does most of its best thinking when we aren't there. The answers are there in the morning.
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Writing a book has about it some of the anxiety of telling a joke and having to wait several years to know whether or not it was funny.
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We are certainly influenced by role models, and if we are surrounded by images of beautiful rich people, we will start to think that to be beautiful and rich is very important - just as in the Middle Ages, people were surrounded by images of religious piety.
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The only possible way to begin a book is to tell oneself that its eventual failure is guaranteed — but survivable.
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There's a whole category of people who miss out by not allowing themselves to be weird enough.
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The moment we cry in a film is not when things are sad but when they turn out to be more beautiful than we expected them to be.
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To one's enemies: I hate myself more than you ever could.
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One rarely falls in love without being as much attracted to what is interestingly wrong with someone as what is objectively healthy.
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