“It is by finding out what something is not that one comes closest to understanding what it is.”
Source: The Consolations of Philosophy (2000), Chapter I, Consolations For Unpopularity, p. 25.
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Alain de Botton 146
Swiss writer 1969Related quotes

“Art is the closest we can come to understanding how a stranger really feels.”
"Living Testament" speech http://video.cpt12.org/video/2364991008 at 11th Hour, Colorado Public Television (1994)

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“It's not finding what's lost, it's understanding what you've found.”
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Source: 1970s, The Awakening of Intelligence (1973), p. 337
Context: How can one be free of the images that one has? First of all, I must find out how these images come into being, what is the mechanism that creates them. You can see that at the moment of actual relationship, that is, when you are talking, when there are arguments, when there are insults and brutality, if you are not completely attentive at that moment, then the mechanism of building an image starts. That is, when the mind is not completely attentive at the moment of action, then the mechanism of building images is set in motion. When you say something to me which I do not like — or which I like — if at that moment I am not completely attentive, then the mechanism starts. If I am attentive, aware, then there is no building of images.

“The secret of life is to find out what one really wants.”
Source: A Lodge in the Wilderness (1906), Ch. II, p. 43