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"We could not be fulfilled if we weren't inauthentic some of the time-inauthentic, that is, in relation to such things as our passing desires to throttle our children, poison our spouse, or end our marriage over a dispute about changing a lightbulb."
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"It is astounding what power being kind, mannered, polite and considerate has in transforming your life."
"The laziness of adolescence is a rehearsal for the incapacity of old age."
"A person's true character lies somewhere until after you might have pressed the wrong button without knowing, then you'll realize that there are dogs in human form."
"People have a natural tendency to anthropomorphize their pets, to ascribe human perceptions and intentions to the animal where none exist."
"One is said to be enlightened with the Right Knowledge when his conduct is appropriate in any situation."
Explore more quotes by Alain de Botton
"We never envy another's achievement more than when we know very little about how it was attained."
"We are properly ready for marriage when we are strong enough to embrace a life of frustration."
"The materialistic view of happiness of our age starkly revealed in our understanding of the word "luxury."
"Instead of bringing back 1600 plants, we might return from our journeys with a collection of small unfAated but life-enhancing thoughts."
"He was a volatile mixture of confidence and vulnerability. He could deliver extended monologues on professional matters, then promptly stop in his tracks to peer inquisitively into his guest's eyes for signs of boredom or mockery, being intelligent enough to be unable fully to believe in his own claims to significance. He might, in a past life, have been a particularly canny and sharp-tongued royal advisor."
"What we seek, at the deepest level, is inwardly to resemble, rather than physically to possess, the objects and places that touch us through their beauty."
"A dominant impulse on encountering beauty is to wish to hold on to it, to possess it and give it weight in one's life. There is an urge to say, 'I was here, I saw this and it mattered to me."
"Paying tax should be framed as a glorious civic duty worthy of gratitude - not a punishment for making money."
"Blessed with riches and possibilities far beyond anything imagined by ancestors who tilled the unpredictable soil of medieval Europe, modern populations have nonetheless shown a remarkable capacity to feel that neither who they are nor what they have is quite enough."
"Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than moving planes, ships or trains."
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