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Quote by Alain de Botton

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Alain de Botton
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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“Here is the vicious circle: if you feel separate from your organic life, you feel driven to survive; survival -going on living- thus becomes a duty and also a drag because you are not fully with it; because it does not quite come up to expectations, you continue to hope that it will, to crave for more time, to feel driven all the more to go on.”

IfsFeelsDoeDutyGoes OnSurvivalExpectationsCome UpDrivenCirclesMore TimeDragViciousCraveVicious CirclesOrganic Life
Author:Alan Watts
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“Like too much alcohol,self-consciousness makes us see ourselves double, and we make the double image for two selves - mental and material, controlling and controlled, reflective and spontaneous. Thus instead of suffering we suffer about suffering, and suffer about suffering about suffering.”

TwoSelfSufferingConsciousnessToo MuchMaterialsAlcoholControlledSpontaneousSelf Consciousness
Book:The Joyous Cosmology: Adventures in the Chemistry of Consciousness
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“Naturally, for a person who finds his identity in something other than his full organism is less than half a man. He is cut off from complete participation in nature. Instead of being a body, he 'has' a body. Instead of living and loving he 'has' instincts for survival and copulation.”

MenPersonsBodyHalfCuttingIdentitySurvivalInstinctOrganismsParticipation
Book:The Joyous Cosmology: Adventures in the Chemistry of Consciousness
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“I search his eyes for the slightest sign of anything, fear, remorse, anger. But there's only the same look of amusement that ended our last conversation. It's as if he's speaking the words again. "Oh, my dear Miss Everdeen. I thought we had agreed not to lie to each other." He's right. We did. The point of my arrow shifts upward. I release the string. And President Coin collapses over the side of the balcony and plunges to the ground. Dead.”

IfsLooksEyeLastsLyingSidesPresidentMissingConversationDearReleaseHis EyesStringsCollapseCoinsRemorseAmusementArrowsPlungeBalconies
Author:Suzanne Collins
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“I think about going to the lake, but I'm so weak that I barely make it to my meeting place with Gale. I sit on the rock where Cressida filmed us, but it's too wide without his body beside me. Several times I close my eyes and count to ten, thinking that when I open them, he will have materialized without a sound as he so often did. I have to remind myself that Gale's in 2 with a fancy job, probably kissing another pair of lips.”

ThinkingBodyEyeJobsSoundRocksTenKissingWeakMeetingsLipsWideFancyLakesPairsGale
Author:Suzanne Collins
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