Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than moving planes, ships or trains.
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Alain de Botton
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The pleasure we derive from journeys is perhaps dependent more on the mindset with which we travel than on the destination we travel to.

By Alain de Botton

The study of maps and the perusal of travel books aroused in me a secret fascination that was at times almost irresistible.

By Alain de Botton

Introspective reflections that might otherwise be liable to stall are helped along by the flow of the landscape...

By Alain de Botton

We are humiliated by what is powerful and mean, but awed by what is powerful and noble.

By Alain de Botton

At this last stop before the road enters the endless forest, what we have in common with others can loom larger than what separates us.

By Alain de Botton

Instead of bringing back 1600 plants, we might return from our journeys with a collection of small unfêted but life-enhancing thoughts.

By Alain de Botton

The materialistic view of happiness of our age starkly revealed in our understanding of the word "luxury.

By Alain de Botton

Anyone who isn't embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn't learning enough.

By Alain de Botton

There is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life.

By Alain de Botton

Booksellers are the most valuable destination for the lonely, given the numbers of books written because authors couldn't find anyone to talk to.

By Alain de Botton

I was relying on youth be loyal to the specific variety of compromise and unhappiness, which our hard-won marriage represents.

By Alain de Botton

Marriage: a deeply peculiar and ultimately unkind thing to inflict on anyone one claims to care for.

By Alain de Botton

If one felt successful, there'd be so little incentive to be successful.

By Alain de Botton

The largest part of what we call 'personality' is determined by how we've opted to defend ourselves against anxiety and sadness".

By Alain de Botton

One rarely falls in love without being as much attracted to what is interestingly wrong with someone as what is objectively healthy.

By Alain de Botton