Alain de Botton Quotes, Revenge Quotes, Intelligent Quotes

Gaffe-focused journalism: revenge of intelligent people who know true evils are out there but lack the access/time to get to them.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Revenge Quotes , Intelligent Quotes

The degree of sympathy we feel regarding another's fiasco is directly proportional to how easy or difficult it is for us to imagine ourselves, under like circumstances, making a similar mistake.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Mistake Quotes , Degrees Quotes

The materialistic view of happiness of our age starkly revealed in our understanding of the word "luxury.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Views Quotes , Luxury Quotes

Every realistic picture represents a choice as to which features of reality should be given prominence; no painting ever captures the whole.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Reality Quotes , Choices Quotes

You need a long hard day's work to reveal the logic of the craving for very bad tv and alcohol.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Long Quotes , Alcohol Quotes

We are continuously challenged to discover new works of culture—and, in the process, we don’t allow any one of them to assume a weight in our minds.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Mind Quotes , New Work Quotes

Let's say you went to Harvard or Oxford or Cambridge, and you said, 'I've come here because I'm in search of morality, guidance and consolation; I want to know how to live,' - they would show you the way to the insane asylum.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Motivation Quotes , Inspiration Quotes

We are sad at home and blame the weather and the ugliness of the buildings, but on the tropical island we learn that the state of the skies and the appearance of our dwellings can never on their own underwrite our joy nor condemn us to misery.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Home Quotes , Dwelling Quotes

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.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Distance Quotes , Curiosity Quotes

The telephone becomes an instrument of torture in the demonic hands of a beloved who doesn't call.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Hands Quotes , Telephones Quotes

Being incomprehensible offers unparalleled protection against having nothing to say...but writing with simplicity requires courage, for there is a danger that one will be overlooked, dismissed as simpleminded by those with a tenacious belief that the impassable prose is a hallmark of intelligence.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Writing Quotes , Simplicity Quotes

to design means forcing ourselves to unlearn what we believe we already know, patiently to take apart the mechanisms behind our reflexes and to acknowledge the mystery and stupefying complexity of everyday gestures like switching off a light of turning on a tap

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Believe Quotes , Mean Quotes

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.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Regret Quotes , Loss Quotes

The origins and travels of our purchases remain matters of indifference, although to the more imaginative at least a slight dampness at the bottom of a carton, or an obscure code printed along a computer cable, may hint at processes of manufacture and transport nobler and more mysterious, more worthy of wonder and study, than the very goods themselves.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Hints Quotes , May Quotes

We may seek a fortune for no greater reason than to secure the respect and attention of people who would otherwise look straight through us.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , People Quotes , Looks Quotes

Sublime places repeat in grand terms a lesson that ordinary life typically teaches viciously: that the universe is mightier than we are, that we are frail and temporary and have no alternative but to accept limitations on our will; that we must bow to necessities greater than ourselves.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Sublime Quotes , Bows Quotes

A simple problem of arithmetic: there are far more ambitions than there are grand destinies available.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Ambition Quotes , Simple Quotes

Paying tax should be framed as a glorious civic duty worthy of gratitude - not a punishment for making money.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Gratitude Quotes , Punishment Quotes

If one felt successful, there'd be so little incentive to be successful.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Successful Quotes , Incentives Quotes

You have to be quite heavily invested in someone to do them the honour of telling them you're annoyed with them.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Annoyed Quotes