Alain de Botton Quotes, Envy Quotes, Trying Quotes

We should keep a careful diary of our moments of envy: they are our covert guides to what we should try to do next.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Envy Quotes , Trying Quotes

A simple problem of arithmetic: there are far more ambitions than there are grand destinies available.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Ambition Quotes , Simple Quotes

We should not feel embarrassed by our difficulties, only by our failure to grow anything beautiful from them.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Beautiful Quotes , Should Quotes

The problem is if you really believe in a society where those who merit to get to the top, get to the top, you’ll also, by implication … believe in a society where those who deserve to get to the bottom also get to the bottom and stay there.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Motivation Quotes , Believe Quotes

True love is a lack of desire to check one's smartphone in another's presence.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Love Is Quotes , Smartphones Quotes

It is perhaps when our lives are at their most problematic that we are likely to be most receptive to beautiful things.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Beautiful Quotes , Beautiful Things Quotes

In the gap between who we wish one day to be and who we are at present, must come pain, anxiety, envy and humiliation.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Pain Quotes , Envy Quotes

It's very hard to respect people on holiday - everybody looks so silly at the beach, it makes you hate humanity - but when you see people at their work they elicit respect, whether it's a mechanic, a stonemason or an accountant.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Beach Quotes , Hate Quotes

Rather than employing it as a supplement to active, conscious seeing, they used the medium as a substitute, paying less attention to the world than they had done previously, taking it on faith that photography automatically assured them possession of it.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Photography Quotes , Attention Quotes

In a secularising world, art has replaced religion as a touchstone of our reverence and devotion.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Art Quotes , World Quotes

We accept the need to train extensively to fly a plane; but think instinct should be enough for marrying and raising kids.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Kids Quotes , Thinking Quotes

Most victories are, in the best way, acts of revenge.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Revenge Quotes , Victory Quotes

To be shown love is to feel ourselves the object of concern: our presence is noted, our name is registered, our views are listened to, our failings are treated with indulgence and our needs are ministered to. And under such care, we flourish.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Love Is Quotes , Views Quotes

There is psychological pleasure in this takeoff, too, for the swiftness of the plane’s ascent is an exemplary symbol of transformation. The display of power can inspire us to imagine analogous, decisive shifts in our own lives, to imagine that we, too, might one day surge above much that now looms over us.” P. 38-39

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Inspire Quotes , One Day Quotes

Paying tax should be framed as a glorious civic duty worthy of gratitude - not a punishment for making money.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Gratitude Quotes , Punishment Quotes

Bad art might be defined as a series of bad choices about what to show and what to leave out.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Art Quotes , Choices Quotes

The attentions of others matter to us because we are afflicted by a congenital uncertainty as to our own value, as a result of which affliction we tend to allow others' appraisals to play a determining role in how we see ourselves. Our sense of identity is held captive by the judgements of those we live among.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Play Quotes , Judgement Quotes

The more dignity is widely and freely available in a society, the less people want to be famous.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , People Quotes , Want Quotes

According to Montaigne, it was the oppressive notion that we had complete mental control over our bodies, and the horror of departing from this portrait of normality, that had left the man unable to perform sexually.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Love Quotes , Men Quotes

Our homes do not have to offer us permanent occupancy or store our clothes to merit the name. To speak of home in relation to a building is simply to recognise its harmony with our own prized internal song. Home can be an airport or a library, a garden or a motorway diner.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Song Quotes , Home Quotes