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Happiness may be difficult to obtain. The obstacles are not primarily financial.

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
May
Obtain
Primarily
Obstacles
Financial
Happiness
Difficult

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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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What is fascinating about marriage is why anyone wants to get married.
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One of our major flaws, and causes of unhappiness, is that we find it hard to take note of appreciate and be grateful for what is always around us. We suffer because we lose sight of the value of what is before us and yearn, often unfairly, for the imagined attraction elsewhere.
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As adults, we try to develop the character traits that would have rescued our parents.
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At the heart of every frustration lies a basic structure: the collision of a wish with an unyielding reality.
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I am in general a very pessimistic person with an optimistic, day to day take on things. The bare facts of life are utterly terrifying. And yet, one can laugh. Indeed, one has to laugh precisely because of the darkness: the nervous laughter of the trenches.
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Our responses to the world are crucially moulded by the company we keep, for we temper our curiosity to fit in with the expectations of others.
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It is perhaps sad books that best console us when we are sad.
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We accept the need to train extensively to fly a plane but think instinct should be enough for marrying and raising kids.
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Rather than employing it as a supplement to active, conscious seeing, they used the medium as a substitute, paying less attention to the world than they had done previously, taking it on faith that photography automatically assured them possession of it.
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The price we have paid for expecting to be so much more than our ancestors is a perpetual anxiety that we are far from being all we might be.
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The longing for destiny is nowhere stronger than in our romantic life.
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One of the best protections against disappointment is to have a lot going on.
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The problem is if you really believe in a society where those who merit to get to the top, get to the top, you’ll also, by implication … believe in a society where those who deserve to get to the bottom also get to the bottom and stay there.
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On paper, being good sounds great but a lot depends on the atmosphere of the workplace or community we live in. We tend to become good or bad depending on the cues sent out within a particular space.
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Envy: a confused, tangled guide to one's own ambitions.
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Insomnia is a glamorous term for thoughts you forgot to have in the day.
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People who go on to be writers are those who can forgive themselves the horror of the first draft.
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As an atheist, I think there are lots of things religions get up to which are of value to non-believers - and one of those things is trying to be a bit better than we normally manage to be.
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We used to build temples, and museums are about as close as secular society dares to go in facing up to the idea that a good building can change your life (and a bad one ruin it).
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