Imogen Eden

“The inability to live in the present lies in the fear of leaving the sheltered position of anticipation or memory, and so of admitting that this is the only life that one is ever likely (heavenly intervention aside) to live.”
― Alain de Botton, On Love

“What does it mean that man is a 'social animal? Only that humans need one another in order to define themselves and achieve self-consciousness, in a way that molluscs or earthworms do not. We cannot come to a proper sense of ourselves if there aren't others around to show us what we're like. 'A man can acquire anything in solitude except a character,' wrote Stendhal, suggesting that character has its genesis in the reactions of others to our words and actions. Our selves are fluid and require the contours provided by our neighbours. To feel whole, we need people in the vicinity who know us as well, sometimes better, than we know ourselves.”
― Alain de Botton, On Love

“What is so frightening is the extent to which we may idealize others when we have such trouble tolerating ourselves”
― Alain de Botton, Essays In Love

“You are moving out of the realm of fantasy "when I grow up" and adjusting to the reality that you're there; it's happening”
― Dolly Alderton, Everything I Know About Love