Alain de Botton Quotes, Blessed Quotes, Humble Quotes

The pre-scientific age, whatever its deficiencies, had at least offered its members the peace of mind that follows from knowing all man-made achievements to be nothing next to the grandeur of the universe. We, more blessed in our gadgetry but less humble in our outlook, have been left... having no more compelling repository of veneration than our brilliant, precise, blinkered and morally troubling fellow human beings.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Blessed Quotes , Humble Quotes

True respectability stems not from the will of the majority but from proper reasoning.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Majority Quotes , Stem Quotes

Perhaps it is true that we do not really exist until there is someone there to see us existing, we cannot properly speak until there is someone who can understand what we are saying in essence, we are not wholly alive until we are loved.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Essence Quotes , Alive Quotes

Being funny should be an incidental byproduct of trying to get to something truthful, not a destination in itself.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Though it may feel otherwise, enjoying life is no more dangerous than apprehending it with continuous anxiety and gloom.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Worry Quotes , Enjoy Life Quotes

Arguments are like eels: however logical, they may slip from the minds weak grasp unless fixed there by imagery and style.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Eels Quotes , Style 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

The more closely we analyze what we consider 'sexy,' the more clearly we will understand that eroticism is the feeling of excitement we experience at finding another human being who shares our values and our sense of the meaning of existence.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Sexy Quotes , Feelings Quotes

Insomnia is a glamorous term for thoughts you forgot to have in the day.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

According to one influential wing of modern secular society there are few more disreputable fates than to end up being 'like everyone else' for 'everyone else' is a category that comprises the mediocre and the conformist, the boring and the suburban. The goal of all right-thinking people should be to mark themselves off from the crowd and 'stand out' in whatever way their talents allow.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

It would be foolish to describe the logistics hub as merely ugly, for it has the horrifying, soulless, immaculate beauty characteristic of many of the workplaces of the modern world.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Would Be Quotes , World Quotes

That said, deciding to avoid other people does not necessarily equate with having no desire whatsoever for company; it may simply reflect a dissatisfaction with what—or who—is available. Cynics are, in the end, only idealists with awkwardly high standards. In Chamfort's words, 'It is sometimes said of a man who lives alone that he does not like society. This is like saying of a man that he does not like going for walks because he is not fond of walking at night in the forêt de Bondy.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

I was uncomfortable writing fiction. My love was the personal essay rather than the novel.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

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

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Sweetness is the opposite of machismo, which is everywhere-and I really don't get on with machismo. I'm interested in sensitivity, and weakness, and fear, and anxiety, because I think that, at the end of the day, behind our masks, that's what we are.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Choosing a spouse and a choosing career: the two great decisions for which society refuses to set up institutional guidance.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Careers Quotes , Two Quotes

We are certainly influenced by role models, and if we are surrounded by images of beautiful rich people, we will start to think that to be beautiful and rich is very important - just as in the Middle Ages, people were surrounded by images of religious piety.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Writing isn’t a career choice. It’s self-medication that over time precipitates the madness it was meant to ward off.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

It looks like it’s wasting time, but literature is actually the ultimate time-saver - because it gives us access to a range of emotions and events that it would take you years, decades, millennia to try to experience directly. Literature is the greatest reality simulator - a machine that puts you through infinitely more situations than you can ever directly witness.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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