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Alain de Botton

Alain de Botton Quotes

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Famous Alain de Botton Quotes

“If the behaviour of babies and small children is any guide, we emerge into the world with our tendencies to imbalance already well entrenched. In our playpens and high chairs, we are rarely far from displaying either hysterical happiness or savage disappointment, love or rage, mania or exhaustion--and, despite the growth of a more temperate exterior in adulthood, we seldom succeed in laying claim to lasting equilibrium, traversing our lives like stubbornly listing ships on choppy seas.”

IfsWorldWellsChildrenGrowthOur LivesSeaBabySucceedClaimsDisappointmentGuidesRageShipsTendenciesDespiteChairsLastingAdulthoodBehaviourSavagesEquilibriumExhaustionExteriorSmall ChildHystericalImbalanceManiaDisappointment Love
Author:Alain de Botton
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“We don't exist unless there is someone who can see us existing, what we say has no meaning until someone can understand, while to be surrounded by friends is constantly to have our identity confirmed; their knowledge and care for us have the power to pull us from our numbness. In small comments, many of them teasing, they reveal they know our foibles and except them and so, in turn, accept that we have a place in the world.”

KnowsWorldCareTurnsAcceptingIdentityCommentPlaces In The WorldTeaseNumbnessFoiblesSurrounded By Friends
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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.”

KnowsWorldWantGivingDifferentHomeRealityForgetStreetsPerspectiveGiving UpNormalAlternativesJust OneNever Giving Up
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“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.”

WorldNeedsFeelsMaySeemsCompanyFitNormalExpectationsAdvantageResponseCuriosityCaughtObservationCompanionTemperCaught UpRemarksAdjustingTraveling AloneCompany We Keep
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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.”

WorldNeedsMindImportantStatesHomeSidesRoomsAliveVersionsPsychologicalVulnerabilityShoreState Of MindRefugeDesirableAllegiance
Author:Alain de Botton
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