Alain de Botton Quotes, Iron Quotes, Velvet Quotes

Responsible for wrapping the iron fist of authority in its velvet glove is Jane Axtell, head of the accountancy firm's Human Resources department.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Iron Quotes , Velvet Quotes

Once I began to consider everything as being of potential interest, objects released latent layers of value.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Layers Quotes , Interest Quotes

It is perhaps sad books that best console us when we are sad.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Book Quotes , Sadness 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

The problem with clichés is not that they contain false ideas, but rather that they are superficial articulations of very good ones...If...we are obliged to create our own language, it is because there are dimensions to ourselves absent from clichés, which require us to flout etiquette in order to convey with greater accuracy the distinctive timbre of our thought.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Order Quotes , Ideas Quotes

Our jobs make relentless calls on a narrow band of our faculties, reducing our chances of achieving rounded personalities and leaving us to suspect (often in the gathering darkness of a Sunday evening) that much of who we are, or could be, has gone unexplored.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Jobs Quotes , Sunday Quotes

Religions are so subtle, so complicated, so intelligent in many ways that they're not fit to be abandoned to the religious alone; they're for all of us.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , God Quotes , Religious Quotes

Cynics are - beneath it all - only idealists with awkwardly high standards.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , High Standards Quotes , Standards Quotes

Her lie was symptomatic of a certain pride she took in mocking the romantic, in being unsentimental, matter-of-fact, stoic; yet at heart she was the oppo site: idealistic, dreamy, giving, and deeply attached to everything she liked verbally to dismiss as "mushy.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Lying Quotes , Heart Quotes

Unhappiness can stem from having only one perspective to play with.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Happiness Quotes , Play 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

It is by finding out what something is not that one comes closest to understanding what it is.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Understanding Quotes , Findings Quotes

Maturity: the confidence to have no opinions on many things.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Inspiring Quotes , Maturity Quotes

It is the most ambitious and driven among us who are the most sorely in need of having our reckless hopes dampened through immersive dousings in the darkness which religions have explored. This is a particular priority for secular Americans, perhaps the most anxious and disappointed people on earth, for their nation infuses them with the most extreme hopes about what they may be able to achieve in their working lives and relationships.

6 years ago

Message Copied

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

I know a lot about writing, but I don't know much about how other industries work. I've tried to use my naivety to my advantage.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Writing Quotes , Use Quotes

We are tempted to believe that certain achievements and possessions will give us enduring satisfaction. We are invited to imagine ourselves scaling the steep cliff face of happiness in order to reach a wide, high plateau on which we will live out the rest of our lives; we are not reminded that soon after gaining the summit, we will be called down again into fresh lowlands of anxiety and desire.

6 years ago

Message Copied

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

The activities of drawing, eating and drinking, all involve assimilations by the self of desirable elements from the world, a transfer of goodness from without to within.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Drinking Quotes , Self Quotes

Our minds are susceptible to the influence of external voices telling us what we require to be satisfied, voices that may drown out the faint sounds emitted by our souls and distract us from the careful, arduous task of accurately naming our priorities.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Voice Quotes , Priorities Quotes

The only possible way to begin a book is to tell oneself that its eventual failure is guaranteed — but survivable.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Book Quotes , Way Quotes

Curiosity takes ignorance seriously - and is confident enough to admit when it's in the dark. It is aware of not knowing. And then it sets out to do something about it.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Ignorance Quotes , Dark Quotes