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Quote by Alain de Botton

“What am I supposed to do here? What am I supposed to think?”

Quote by Alain de Botton

Author

Alain de Botton

Alain de Botton is a Swiss writer and philosopher known for his books on philosophy, art, and culture. His work is characterized by its accessible exploration of profound themes, which has won him a wide audience. more

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“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.”

World Friendship Company Fit Travel Expectations Response Curiosity Temper Traveling Alone Company We Keep

Author:Alain de Botton

“The activities of drawing, eating and drinking, all involve assimilations by the self of desirable elements from the world, a transfer of goodness from without to within.”

World Self Activity Goodness Elements Eating Drinking Drawing Desirable Transfers Assimilation Eating And Drinking

Author:Alain de Botton

“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.”

Artist Results Greatness Landscape Selection Great Art Great Artist

Author:Alain de Botton

“If our lives are dominated by a search for happiness, then perhaps few activities reveal as much about the dynamics of this quest - in all its ardour and paradoxes - than our travels.”

Ifs Happiness Our Lives Activity Paradox Quests Dynamics Searching For Happiness

Author:Alain de Botton

“Unhappiness can stem from having only one perspective to play with.”

Play Happiness Perspective Unhappiness Stem

Author:Alain de Botton

“Once I began to consider everything as being of potential interest, objects released latent layers of value.”

Values Interest Objects Layers Latent

Book:The Art of Travel

Source: The Art of Travel

“It is not just nature that defies us. Human life is as overwhelming... If we spend time in it [the vast spaces of nature], they may help us to accept more graciously the great, unfathomable events that molest our lives and will inevitably return us to dust.”

Ifs Life Humans May Helping Life Is Space Accepting Our Lives Events Return Dust Human Life Overwhelming End Times Spend Time Unfathomable

Author:Alain de Botton

“Memory is... similar to anticipation: an instrument of simplification and selection.”

Memories Instruments Anticipation Selection Simplification

Author:Alain de Botton

“Taking photographs can assuage the itch for possession sparked by the beauty of a place; our anxiety over losing a precious scene can decline with every click of the shutter.”

Scene Anxiety Photography Losing Photograph Possession Decline Clicks Shutters

Book:The Art of Travel

Source: The Art of Travel

“Rather than employing it as a supplement to active, conscious seeing, they used the medium as a substitute, paying less attention to the world than they had done previously, taking it on faith that photography automatically assured them possession of it.”

World Done Used Attention Seeing Photography Conscious Possession Active Mediums Substitutes Assured Supplements Employing

Author:Alain de Botton