English - Writer | December 20, 1969 -
There are few more effective ways to promote tolerance between suspicious neighbours than to force them to eat supper together.
Alain de Botton
TogetherToleranceMoreEatForce
Learning to give up on perfection may be just about the most romantic move any of us could make.
LearningRomanticPerfectionUpMay
My greatest joy comes from creativity: from feeling that I have been able to identify a certain aspect of human nature and crystallise a phenomenon in words.
NatureCreativityWordsJoyFeeling
I was foreign and Jewish, with a funny name, and was very small and hated sport, a real problem at an English prep school. So the way to get round it was to become the school joker, which I did quite effectively - I was always fooling around to make the people who would otherwise dump me in the loo laugh.
FunnySchoolPeopleMeSmallName
The person who is truly best suited to us is not the person who shares our tastes, but the person who can negotiate differences in taste intelligently and wisely.
BestDifferencesPersonTasteUs
It's very hard to respect people on holiday - everybody looks so silly at the beach, it makes you hate humanity - but when you see people at their work they elicit respect, whether it's a mechanic, a stonemason or an accountant.
WorkRespectHateBeachPeopleYou
I'm one of those introverted people who simply feels a lot better after spending time alone thinking through ideas and emotions. This is a sign, I've come to think, of a kind of emotional disturbance - a reaction to inner fragility. I wish I were more able to just act and do, rather than constantly have to retreat and examine and think.
AloneTimePeopleIdeasBetterWish
The humanities have been forced to disguise, both from themselves and their students, why their subjects really matter, for the sake of attracting money and prestige in a world obsessed by the achievements of science.
ScienceMoneyWorldWhyMatterBeen
The problem with airports is that we go there when we need to catch a plane - and because it's so difficult to find the way to the gate, we tend not to look around at our surroundings.
ProblemLookFindGoWayDifficult
I learnt to stop fantasising about the perfect job or the perfect relationship because that can actually be an excuse for not living.
RelationshipJobPerfectStopLiving
My dad was a slightly stricter version of Richard Dawkins. The worldview was that there are idiots out there who believe in Santa Claus and fairies and magic and elves, and we're not joining that nonsense.
BelieveMagicNonsenseIdiotsOut
Compatibility is an achievement of love; it shouldn't be its precondition.
LoveAchievementCompatibility
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