Alain de Botton Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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I've never hankered for any role.
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We never wore burkas because Somalis had our own culture.
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People will say, 'Just one picture please.' That is how it starts. There is just one picture and then somebody else wants another. And when I say 'No' I feel guilty.
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I don't think a woman riding a motorcycle thinks of herself as doing something that has sex appeal. I think she's trying to replicate for herself an experience that she sees men having.
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It's important to me to try and expose young people to the things they believe are off-limits to them. I tell them, 'There are no walls, only the ones we put up.' My advice to young people looking at my life is not to follow my footprint but to go out there and make their own.
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I'm an all-things-in-moderation kind of person. I do eat a warm donut occasionally. I especially enjoy a cider donut when I'm apple picking. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
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I am a scientist. Mine is a professional world that achieves great things for humanity.
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Technology is changing the way we interact as humans.
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You must pass your days in song. Let your whole life be a song.
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Don't romanticise your 'vocation.' You can either write good sentences or you can't. There is no 'writer's lifestyle.' All that matters is what you leave on the page.
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Back in 1975, we were making all the decisions about what people were going to watch.
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Going to the conventions, seeing the incredible amount of love that people put into their clothing, costumes, gadgetry, and art of all kinds, is a huge treat for me.
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The artist deals in what cannot be said in words. The artist whose medium is fiction does this in words. The novelist says in words what cannot be said in words.
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If I got $300 million from the California Lottery, the first thing I would do is buy the rights to 'Firefly', make it on my own, and distribute it on the Internet.
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I had a good imagination and I still have one; a child-like imagination that hasn't gone away.
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One of my favorite experiences in my career, certainly one of the most interesting characters I've ever played, was Simon Lee on 'The Event.' That was a show I was quite proud of and a character I really enjoyed playing. It was one of the most three-dimensional characters that was ever written for me and that I'd ever gotten to play.
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Look, there's no metaphysics on earth like chocolates.
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We are becoming able to see the pursuit of external power for what it is and the futility of trying to escape the pain of powerlessness by changing the world. When we look inward, not outward, we can dismantle the parts of our personalities that have controlled us for so long - such as anger, jealousy, vindictiveness, superiority, inferiority.
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Many occasions I've sat down with Israelis to say, where do you see your country in 10 years time, and work me back, so we can figure out the synergies and the connections between Israel and the rest of the Arab world. No Israeli has ever been able to answer that question.
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People, not just reporters, are more interested in politics than in government, so the actual issues wouldn't be something that interested them.
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I don't share the view that the ICC is anti-African. The ICC is not putting Africa on trial. The ICC is fighting impunity and individuals who are accused of crimes.
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But whatever you might say and whatever I might say, a machine which can play chess with people is one of the most marvellous wonders of our 20th century!
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We should not be frightened by appearances.
