Alain de Botton Quotes, Thinking Quotes, Ideas Quotes

There is a devilishly direct relationship between the significance of an idea and how nervous we become at the prospect of having to think about it.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

There is a longing for a return to a time without the need for choices, free of the regret at the inevitable loss that all choice (however wonderful) has entailed.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Regret Quotes , Loss Quotes

The mind may be reluctant to think properly when thinking is all it is supposed to do; the task can be as paralysing as having to tell a joke or mimic an accent on demand.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Every realistic picture represents a choice as to which features of reality should be given prominence; no painting ever captures the whole.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

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

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Humanity Quotes , Looks Quotes

The largest part of what we call 'personality' is determined by how we've opted to defend ourselves against anxiety and sadness".

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Sadness Quotes , Worry Quotes

One wants never to give up this crystalline perspective. One wants to keep counterpositioning home with what one knows of alternative realities, as they exist in Tunis or Hyderabad. One wants never to forget that nothing here is normal, that the streets are different in Wisebaden, and Louyang, that this is just one of many possible worlds.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Giving Up Quotes , Home Quotes

What am I supposed to do here? What am I supposed to think?

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton 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.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

One of the best protections against disappointment is to have a lot going on.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Disappointment Quotes

Literature deserves its prestige for one reason above all others - because it's a tool to help us live and die with a little bit more wisdom, goodness, and sanity.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Tools Quotes , Literature Quotes

Most of us still caged within careers chosen for us by our not entirely worldly 18-22 year old selves.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

The greatest difficulty of Travel is that one is forced to take oneself along.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Difficulty Quotes

It's hard loving those who don't much like themselves: "If you're so great, why would you think I'm so great.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Thinking Quotes , Self Hatred Quotes

The Arab-Israeli conflict is also in many ways a conflict about status: it's a war between two peoples who feel deeply humiliated by the other, who want the other to respect them. Battles over status can be even more intractable than those over land or water or oil.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , War Quotes , Land Quotes

Our capacity to draw happiness from aesthetic objects or material goods in fact seems critically dependent on our first satisfying a more important range of emotional or psychological needs, among them the need for understanding, for love, expression and respect.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Happiness Quotes , Emotional Quotes

A lump rises in our throat at the sight of beauty from an implicit knowledge that the happiness it hints at is the exception.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Sight Quotes , Hints Quotes

It was no longer her absence that wounded me, but my growing indifference to it. Forgetting, however calming, was also a reminder of infidelity to what I had at one time held so dear.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Infidelity Quotes , Growing Quotes

The degree of sympathy we feel regarding another's fiasco is directly proportional to how easy or difficult it is for us to imagine ourselves, under like circumstances, making a similar mistake.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Mistake Quotes , Degrees Quotes

We often lose our tempers not with those who are actually to blame; just with those who love us enough to forgive us our foul moods.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Forgiving Quotes , Blame Quotes