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Choosing a spouse and a choosing career: the two great decisions for which society refuses to set up institutional guidance.

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
Careers
Institutional
Decision
Refuses
Society
Spouse
Two
Choosing
Great
Guidance
Decisions
Refuse
Career

More quotes by Alain de Botton

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Because the rhythm of conversation makes no allowance for dead periods, because the presence of others calls for continuous responses, we are left to regret the inanity of what we say, and the missed opportunity of what we do not.
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Responsible for wrapping the iron fist of authority in its velvet glove is Jane Axtell, head of the accountancy firm's Human Resources department.
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The attentions of others matter to us because we are afflicted by a congenital uncertainty as to our own value, as a result of which affliction we tend to allow others' appraisals to play a determining role in how we see ourselves. Our sense of identity is held captive by the judgements of those we live among.
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So many complaints boil down to the belly ache of the fragile, mortal, ignored ego in a vast and indifferent universe.
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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.
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There are selections so acute that they come to define a place, with the result that we can no longer travel through that landscape without being reminded of what a great artist noticed there.
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One wants never to give up this crystalline perspective. One wants to keep counterpositioning home with what one knows of alternative realities, as they exist in Tunis or Hyderabad. One wants never to forget that nothing here is normal, that the streets are different in Wisebaden, and Louyang, that this is just one of many possible worlds.
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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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It's hard loving those who don't much like themselves: If you're so great, why would you think I'm so great.
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A notorious inability to express emotions makes human beings the only animals capable of suicide.
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Most victories are, in the best way, acts of revenge.
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Curiosity might be pictured as being made up of chains of small questions extending outwards, sometimes over huge distances, from a central hub composed of a few blunt, large questions.
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The inability to live in the present lies in the fear of leaving the sheltered position of anticipation or memory, and so of admitting that this is the only life that one is ever likely (heavenly intervention aside) to live.
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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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One kind of good book should leave you asking: how did the author know that about me?
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Everyone wants a better life: very few of us want to be better people.
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Rather than getting more spoilt with age, as difficulties pile up, epiphanies of gratitude abound.
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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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To be shown love is to feel ourselves the object of concern: our presence is noted, our name is registered, our views are listened to, our failings are treated with indulgence and our needs are ministered to. And under such care, we flourish.
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Alcohol-inspired fights are a reminder of the price we pay for our daily submission at the altars of prudence and order.
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