Distress at losing an object can be as much a frustration at the intellectual mystery of the disappearance as about the loss itself.
Alain de BottonPolitics is so difficult, it's generally only people who aren't quite up to the task who feel convinced they 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 BottonOur capacity to draw happiness from aesthetic objects or material goods in fact seems critically dependent on our first satisfying a more important range of emotional or psychological needs, among them the need for understanding, for love, expression and respect.
Alain de Botton