There is a longing for a return to a time without the need for choices, free of the regret at the inevitable loss that all choice (however wonderful) has entailed.
Alain de BottonA dominant impulse on encountering beauty is to wish to hold on to it, to possess it and give it weight in oneโs life. There is an urge to say, โI was here, I saw this and it mattered to me.
Alain de BottonWe often lose our tempers not with those who are actually to blame; just with those who love us enough to forgive us our foul moods.
Alain de BottonWe wanted to test each other's capacity for survival: only if we had tried in vain to destroy one another would we know we were safe.
Alain de BottonThe more familiar two people become, the more the language they speak together departs from that of the ordinary, dictionary-defined discourse. Familiarity creates a new language, an in-house language of intimacy that carries reference to the story the two lovers are weaving together and that cannot be readily understood by others.
Alain de Botton