I passionately believe that's it's not just what you say that counts, it's also how you say it - that the success of your argument critically depends on your manner of presenting it.
Alain de Botton
Written as a reaction to the high casualty rates of the British Expeditionary Force at Mons and Le Cateau
force death reaction british written
Booksellers are the most valuable destination for the lonely, given the numbers of books that were written because authors couldn't find anyone to talk to
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The most attractive are not those who allow us to kiss them at once (we soon feel ungrateful) or those who never allow us to kiss them (we soon forget them), but those who coyly lead us between the two extremes.
extremes feel forget kiss attractive
We are certainly influenced by role models, and if we are surrounded by images of beautiful rich people, we will start to think that to be beautiful and rich is very important - just as in the Middle Ages, people were surrounded by images of religious piety.
age people religious beautiful start piety rich important images
We may seek a fortune for no greater reason than to secure the respect and attention of people who would otherwise look straight through us
fortune people reason respect attention greater
I am in general a very pessimistic person with an optimistic, day-to-day take on things. The bare facts of life are utterly terrifying. And yet, one can laugh. Indeed, one has to laugh precisely because of the darkness: the nervous laughter of the trenches.
life darkness person optimistic laughter laugh facts things
manners success argument
Kant and Hegel are interesting thinkers. But I am happy to insist that they are also terrible writers.
happy interesting writers terrible
Snobbery exists in all areas of life, not least literary criticism. By snobbery I mean, any method of judging someone or something whereby you latch on to one or two features about them/it, and use these to come to a definitive, immovable judgement. In intellectual matters, the snob will often take the external features of a work as a guide to its value.
method life work judging literary intellectual judgement criticism snobbery
Status anxiety definitely exists at a political level. Many Iraqis were annoyed with the US essentially for reasons of status: for not showing them respect, for humiliating them.
respect political anxiety reasons status
Pick up any newspaper or magazine, open the TV, and you'll be bombarded with suggestions of how to have a successful life. Some of these suggestions are deeply unhelpful to our own projects and priorities - and we should take care.
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It is in books, poems, paintings which often give us the confidence to take seriously feelings in ourselves that we might otherwise never have thought to acknowledge.
art confidence thought poems feelings emotion books give paintings
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.
places beauty art touch possess
Art was the very antithesis of crass moralism.
art
In a secularising world, art has replaced religion as a touchstone of our reverence and devotion.
art religion world devotion reverence secularism
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