Alain de Botton Quotes, Sex Quotes, Suggestions Quotes

I'm also interested in the modern suggestion that you can have a combination of love and sex in a marriage - which no previous society has ever believed.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Sex Quotes , Suggestions Quotes

A 'good job' can be both practically attractive while still not good enough to devote your entire life to.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Jobs Quotes , Work Quotes

Cynics are - beneath it all - only idealists with awkwardly high standards.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , High Standards Quotes , Standards Quotes

We envy only those whom we feel ourselves to be like; we envy only members of our reference group. There are few successes more unendurable than those of our close friends.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Envy Quotes , Groups Quotes

We are tempted to believe that certain achievements and possessions will give us enduring satisfaction. We are invited to imagine ourselves scaling the steep cliff face of happiness in order to reach a wide, high plateau on which we will live out the rest of our lives; we are not reminded that soon after gaining the summit, we will be called down again into fresh lowlands of anxiety and desire.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Believe Quotes , Order 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

Year-end financial statements express a truth about office life which is no less irrefutable yet also, in the end, no less irrelevant or irritating than an evolutionary biologist's proud reminder that the purpose of existence lies in the propagation of our genes.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Lying Quotes , Years Quotes

Endeavoring to purchase something we think beautiful may in fact be the most unimaginative way of dealing with the longing it excites in us, just as trying to sleep with someone may be the bluntest response to a feeling of love.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Beautiful Quotes , Sleep Quotes

True love is a lack of desire to check one's smartphone in another's presence.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Love Is Quotes , Smartphones Quotes

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.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Atheist Quotes , Thinking Quotes

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).

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Museums Quotes , Secular Society Quotes

It seemed an advantage to be traveling alone. 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...Being closely observed by a companion can also inhibit our observation of others; then, too, we may become caught up in adjusting ourselves to the companion's questions and remarks, or feel the need to make ourselves seem more normal than is good for our curiosity.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Company We Keep Quotes , Expectations Quotes

What is fascinating about marriage is why anyone wants to get married.

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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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It is no coincidence that the Western attraction to sublime landscapes developed at precisely the moment when traditional beliefs in God began to wane.

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Sublime Quotes , Religion 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

Social media has lots of benefits, but compared to Christianity, it tends to group people by interests. Religion puts you with people who have nothing in common except that you're human.

6 years ago

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

The media insists on taking what someone didn't mean to say as being far closer to the truth than what they did.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Mean Quotes

The architects who benefit us most maybe those generous enough to lay aside their claims to genius in order to devote themselves to assembling graceful but predominantly unoriginal boxes. Architecture should have the confidence and the kindness to be a little boring.

6 years ago

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Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Kindness Quotes , Order Quotes