In the oasis complex, the thirsty man images he sees water, palm trees, and shade not because he has evidence for the belief, but because he has a need for it. Desperate needs bring about a hallucination of their solution: thirst hallucinates water, the need for love hallucinates a prince or princess. The oasis complex is never a complete delusion: the man in the desert does see something on the horizon. It is just that the palms have withered, the well is dry, and the place is infected with locusts.
Alain de BottonThe media insists on taking what someone didn't mean to say as being far closer to the truth than what they did.
Alain de BottonMost of our childhood is stored not in photos, but in certain biscuits, lights of day, smells, textures of carpet.
Alain de BottonGood sex isn't just fun, it keeps us sane and happy. Having sex with someone makes us feel wanted, alive and potent.
Alain de BottonIt is not necessarily at home that we best encounter our true selves. The furniture insists that we cannot change because it does not; the domestic setting keeps us tethered to the person we are in ordinary life, who may not be who we essentially are.
Alain de BottonThere is psychological pleasure in this takeoff, too, for the swiftness of the planeโs ascent is an exemplary symbol of transformation. The display of power can inspire us to imagine analogous, decisive shifts in our own lives, to imagine that we, too, might one day surge above much that now looms over us.โ P. 38-39
Alain de Botton