Alain De Botton

The tube train left the station in order to hurt me.

My date didn't show up because they loathed me.

Everything is connected up with something wrong with you.

And of course, what we really realize is that the world's much more random.

The weather wasn't interested in you.

The tube is not trying to humiliate you.

The date that was late, they had some problem with their own family, whatever it is.

There's often a lot more going on than the victimized person feels.

And so that's why, by the way, it's really useful to get out on a starry night and look at the stars.

Because suddenly you're aware of the vastness in which we all live.

And you think, you know what?

It's not all about me.

And that's a beautiful thought because normally we think it's not all about me and that's a bad thing.

It should be more about me.

And then sometimes you look at something vast like the ocean, like the stars, and you think, thank goodness that I'm not the center of this show.

This show's been going on a lot longer.

It's a lot bigger.

I am a grain of sand.

Thank God.

And so that's a sort of anti-victimization strategy to realize that, you know, it started long before you.