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Someone who has thought rationally and deeply about how the body works is likely to arrive at better ideas about how to be healthy than someone who has followed a hunch. Medicine presupposes a hierarchy between the confusion the layperson will be in about what is wrong with him, and the more accurate knowledge available to doctors reasoning logically. … At the heart of Epicureanism is the thought that we are as bad at answering the question “What will make me happy?” as “What will make me healthy?” … Our souls do not spell out their troubles.

— Alain de Botton The Consolations of Philosophy (2000)

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Happiness

More quotes by Alain de Botton

It wasn't only fanatics and drunkards who began conversations with strangers in public.

The Consolations of Philosophy (2000)

The greatest works of art speak to us without knowing us.

The Consolations of Philosophy (2000)

We should not be frightened by appearances.

The Consolations of Philosophy (2000)

To look at the paper is to raise a seashell to one’s ear and to be overwhelmed by the roar of humanity.

The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work (2009)

A virtuous, ordinary life, striving for wisdom but never far from folly, is achievement enough.

The Consolations of Philosophy (2000)

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Shared pain is lessened; shared joy, increased — thus do we refute entropy.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Alain de Botton (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.