Artistic accounts involve severe abbreviations of what reality will force upon us. Alain de Botton More Quotes by Alain de Botton More Quotes From Alain de Botton Although I don't believe in God, Bach's music shows me what a love of God must feel like. Alain de Botton bachs-music god-love believe As adults, we try to develop the character traits that would have rescued our parents. Alain de Botton parent trying character It is by finding out what something is not that one comes closest to understanding what it is. Alain de Botton closest findings understanding Our capacity to draw happiness from aesthetic objects or material goods in fact seems critically dependent on our first satisfying a more important range of emotional or psychological needs, among them the need for understanding, for love, expression and respect. Alain de Botton emotional expression happiness People who hold important positions in society are commonly labelled "somebodies," and their inverse "nobodies"-both of which are, of course, nonsensical descriptors, for we are all, by necessity, individuals with distinct identities and comparable claims on existence. Such words are nevertheless an apt vehicle for conveying the disparate treatment accorded to different groups. Those without status are all but invisible: they are treated brusquely by others, their complexities trampled upon and their singularities ignored. Alain de Botton important identity people The best cure for one's bad tendencies is to see them in action in another person. Alain de Botton tendencies cures action It was no longer her absence that wounded me, but my growing indifference to it. Forgetting, however calming, was also a reminder of infidelity to what I had at one time held so dear. Alain de Botton calming infidelity growing It is in dialogue with pain that many beautiful things acquire their value. Acquaintance with grief turns out to be one of the more unusual prerequisites of architectural appreciation. We might, quite aside from all other requirements, need to be a little sad before buildings can properly touch us. Alain de Botton pain appreciation beautiful We each appear to hold within ourselves a range of divergent views as to our native qualities.. And amid such uncertainty, we typically turn to the wider world to settle the question of our significance.. we seem beholden to affections of others to endure ourselves. Alain de Botton divergent quality views In reality, the likelihood of reaching the pinnacle of capitalist society today is only marginally better than were the chances of being accepted into the French nobility four centuries ago, though at least an aristocratic age was franker, and therefore kinder, about the odds. It did not relentlessly play up the possibilities open to all, and so, in turn, did not cruelly equate an ordinary life with a failed one. Alain de Botton odds play reality 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. Alain de Botton sleep beautiful thinking Our homes do not have to offer us permanent occupancy or store our clothes to merit the name. To speak of home in relation to a building is simply to recognise its harmony with our own prized internal song. Home can be an airport or a library, a garden or a motorway diner. Alain de Botton garden home song The origins and travels of our purchases remain matters of indifference, although to the more imaginative at least a slight dampness at the bottom of a carton, or an obscure code printed along a computer cable, may hint at processes of manufacture and transport nobler and more mysterious, more worthy of wonder and study, than the very goods themselves. Alain de Botton hints matter may In a secularising world, art has replaced religion as a touchstone of our reverence and devotion. Alain de Botton devotion world art Good books put a finger on emotions that are deeply our own - but that we could never have described on our own. Alain de Botton good-book emotion book What kills us isn't one big thing, but thousands of tiny obligations we can't turn down for fear of disappointing others. Alain de Botton disappointing tiny bigs You have to be quite heavily invested in someone to do them the honour of telling them you're annoyed with them. Alain de Botton honour annoyed The mind does most of its best thinking when we aren't there. The answers are there in the morning. Alain de Botton mind morning thinking Insomnia is a glamorous term for thoughts you forgot to have in the day. Alain de Botton injury pain insomnia The materialistic view of happiness of our age starkly revealed in our understanding of the word "luxury. Alain de Botton luxury understanding views
