Quote

The real issue is not whether baking biscuits is meaningful, but the extent to which the activity can seem to be so after it has been continuously stretched and subdivided across five thousand lives.

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
Lives
Issue
Seems
Across
Subdivided
Real
Activity
Biscuits
Seem
Baking
Thousand
Stretched
Issues
Continuously
Five
Extent
Whether
Meaningful

More quotes by Alain de Botton

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The universe is large and we are tiny, without the need for further religious superstructure. One can have so-called spiritual moments without belief in the spirit.
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There is a longing for a return to a time without the need for choices, free of the regret at the inevitable loss that all choice (however wonderful) has entailed.
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There is always the option of being emotionally lazy, that is, of quoting.
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When work is not going well, it's useful to remember that our identities stretch beyond what is on the business card, that we were people long before we became workers - and will continue to be human once we have put our tools down forever.
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We should not feel embarrassed by our difficulties, only by our failure to grow anything beautiful from them.
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The media insists on taking what someone didn't mean to say as being far closer to the truth than what they did.
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It is in dialogue with pain that many beautiful things acquire their value. Acquaintance with grief turns out to be one of the more unusual prerequisites of architectural appreciation. We might, quite aside from all other requirements, need to be a little sad before buildings can properly touch us.
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What am I supposed to do here? What am I supposed to think?
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The materialistic view of happiness of our age starkly revealed in our understanding of the word luxury.
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Every realistic picture represents a choice as to which features of reality should be given prominence no painting ever captures the whole.
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Every time we feel satisfied with what we have, we can be counted as rich, however little we may actually possess.
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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.
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I learnt to stop fantasising about the perfect job or the perfect relationship because that can actually be an excuse for not living.
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As adults, we try to develop the character traits that would have rescued our parents.
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Work finally begins when the fear of doing nothing exceeds the fear of doing it badly.
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We need a home in the psychological sense as much as we need one in the physical: to compensate for a vulnerability. We need a refuge to shore up our states of mind, because so much of the world is opposed to our allegiances. We need our rooms to align us to desirable versions of ourselves and to keep alive the important, evanescent sides of us.
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Choosing a spouse and a choosing career: the two great decisions for which society refuses to set up institutional guidance.
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Gaffe-focused journalism: revenge of intelligent people who know true evils are out there but lack the access/time to get to them.
Alain de Botton
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People who readily accept the need for a gym will resist that their personalities might need some work too.
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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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